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Show NEW CIVIL GOVERNOR OF CANAL ZONE I i President Taft has tendered to Col. G. W. Goethals, U. S. A., chief engineer of the Panama can.1, and the colonel has accepted, the post of civil governor of tho canal zone. The change of government on the isthmus will take place probably in the spring. Colonel Goethals will serve as civil governor until the canal is formally opened on January 1, 1915. The first vessel will be sent through the canal, barring the unforeseen, un-foreseen, Sept. 25, 1913, on the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery discov-ery of the Pacific. From then until the formal opening the canal will be operated as a "sample" for tra'ning of the operating force, the getting of everything in final shipshape, etc. The canal, according to Colonel Goethals, is now more thaa 75 per cent completed, and July 1 next will see it ready for the turning in of the water. It is apprehended that the entrance and presence of the water r v may cause some further slides of the treacherous banks, particularly at the Culebra cut, but the expectation is that the dredges can take care of the materiaj thus deposited in the big ditch. Colonel Gdethals intends, when the canal is a-going, to retire from the government service and settle in New York as a consulting engineer, with the Idea of making some money for his family. Meantime President Taft has isked congress to reward the colonel's work on the Isthmus by promoting i!m to bs major-general in the army. |