REPORT BOARD DIRECTORS PANAMA RAILROAD COMPANY. Le

The active competition of two important foreign lines for traffic
heretofore handled solely by this company’s line has been followed
by the outcome which generally results frem an increase in facilities,
viz, a material increase in the aggregate of tonnage to be transported.

The number of passengers carried both ways by our vessels, mostly
employees of the Canal Commission and their families, has taxed their
capacity, which has been enlarged from time to time as possible.

Competing lines have afforded little, if any, relief in this traffic, as
the company’s vacation rates to its own employees and those of the
Canal Commission do not apply by those lines.

Operating expenses have been seriously affected by cost of impor-
tant repairs of wear and tear to our ships, due to the necessity to turn
them round rapidly in port, in order to accomplish the increase in
their total voyages, so much_so that a reduction in round voyages
for next year has been determined upon.

The company’s dock facilities in New York Harbor have not yet
been enlarged, because no others are obtainable except by unwar-
ranted outlays. However, arrangements are under way to lengthen
the company’s pier about 100 feet, to the new pierhead line, and the
advisability of securing an unloading berth on the Hoboken side of
the Hudson River is being considered.

At the Isthmus the company’s vessels are now berthed and rapidly
handled at our Cristobal docks in the mouth of the canal; additional
berths in Colon Harbor are thus provided for the vessels of our co-
carriers.

During the year our S. S. Advance and Finance were equipped
with large cold-storage space, and Allsanca now under reconstruction
will be similarly fitted. The refrigerating plants installed on S. S.
Colon and Panama (under charter from the Canal Commission) may
be enlarged. |

Allianca, already withdrawn from service for the purpose, is to
be practically rebuilt at a contract cost of $340,000, with an increase
in her capacity of 900 tons, and completed early in 1908. To re-
place Allianca while out of service (because a suitable one of Ameri-
can registry was unobtainable) a British vessel of large capacity has
been chartered. |
| | COMMISSARY DEPARTMENT.

The commissary department has developed into a well-organized
and well-stocked modern department store comprising, besides the
main store and the industrial and production plants at Cristobal,
seven branch stores located at Gatun, Gorgona, Empire, Culebra, Rio
Grande, Paraiso, and Pedro Miguel. Four additional stores are being
opened at Bas Obispo, Tabernilla, Las Cascadas, and La Boca.

With the completion in July of the new cold storage and ice plants
at Cristobal excellent cold storage facilities will be provided, and b
the closing down of the temporary cold storage plant at Colon all
cold storage articles and ice will be handled from one plant, with in-
creased efficiency and less cost. : | |

The opening of the new bakery and laundry plants in January and
April respectively added to the commissary department two very
important features. 7