12 REPORT BOARD DIRECTORS PANAMA RAILROAD COMPANY.

12 to 14 laborers in the second story, and have 3 rooms for the sec-
tion foremen in the first story. °

At Cristobal 3 new 2-story compartment buildings have been
erected for married employees, providing for a total of 12 families. —
Other ‘‘bachelor”’ quarters have been built to accommodate 40 shop
employees. At Colon 2 cottages have been built for 1 and 2 families,
respectively, and a general office building 112 feet square has also
been constructed near wharf No. 1, in what is locally known as
“Shaler Park.”’ :

A concrete steel oil house 30 by 40 feet, a concrete steel coal-stor-
age and ice plant 110 by 200 feet (having a capacity of 50 tons of ice
per day and 90,000 cubic feet of refrigeration space), new steel build-
ings for laundry, bakery, a frame dry kiln 30 by 60 and a new store-
house 35 by 125, and an additional commissary storehouse, 70 by
120, have also been completed. |

The new fast coal-handling plant at wharf No. 14 has been com-

pleted and is in use. The coal chute, roundhouse, and cinder pit
at the Cristobal terminal have been completed, and a new boiler
shop is planned and will be erected during 1907. These, with the.
machine shops and the accompanying storage and car yards, make
the Cristobal railroad terminal complete in every respect.
Wharf No. 11, at Cristobal, has been completed and 9,350 addi-
_ tional square feet of roof has been added. A foreman’s office, ticket
office, tool room, waiting and baggage rooms have been constructed
on the wharf. | )

Extensive repairs are under way on wharf No. 4, and an addition
of 12 feet on the north side isto be made to facilitate the handling
of freight. © : |

Wharves Nos. 1 and 2 are being strengthened, repaired, and painted,
at a total cost of $75,000.

Twenty-seven thousand square feet of corrugated iron roofing have
been put on the triangular wharf at La Boca, and 54,000 square feet
- on the new lumber wharf. The capacity of the steel pier at La Boca
has been more than doubled by lowering the narrow freight handling
platform to a level with the original tracks and by building an adjoin-
ng oe at a lower level for the handling of cars to and from the

ock. |
Hight new electric cranes of 4 tons capacity each being installed on
the La Boca wharf are 50 per cent completed. |

STEAMSHIP. LINE.

Warnings of the company’s steamship line were $1,560,910.48, or an
increase of 15.88 per cent, while operating expenses were $1,402 347.53,
an increase of but $18,177.01, or 1.31 per cent. This very encourag-
ing outcome was accomplished despite the fact that there were 74
round trips made this year as against 65 last year, an increase of
13.85 per cent in the efficiency of the line, and considering the almost
horizontal advances made in wages and the greater cost of nearly
| every inne used in transportation, must be regarded as a satisfactory
result. | : | |

The total cargo of all classes carried between New York and Colon
by our line was 214,870 tons, as against 198,292 tons last year, or an
merease of 8.45 per cent. | =

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