28 : PANAMA RAIL ROAD COMPANY.

two 7,500 ton barges soon to be successively placed in our service for
operation regularly between Norfolk and the Isthmus, there is little
expectation that necessity will arise for carrying more than a normal
supply in stock. there. :

The Navy Department has arranged to procure and forward for its
own account some 100,000 tons to be distributed equally on storage
between our Cristobal and Balboa coaling plants.

Selling The prices of coal trimmed into bunkers of steamers at the Isthmus

Price of were:

Coal at the :

Isthmus. December Ist, 1918.......... $13.00 at Cristobal; $14.50 at Balboa...
Norio eLONO ee 11,50) at«Cristobal: 13:50 at Balboa,”

7,500 Ton The Congressional Appropriation of $1,600,000 tor the construction of

Fuel the two 7,500 ton barges mentioned in the report of last year was found

Barges. to be inadequate, owing to increased wages for shipbuilding mechanics on
Government work authorized and directed by the Wage Adjustment
Commission; an additional appropriation of $364,949 per barge was,
upon presentation of the facts, allowed by Congress and work on both
barges thereafter progressed with maximum forces, but with slight prospect
that the first barge will be delivered before early spring of next year, the

: second to follow several months later.

Negotia- The negotiations for the purchase of the Royal Mail Steam Packet

EO Company’s waterfront property at Colon having been concluded, docu-

ce. a ments were exchanged and recorded on the Isthmus and the transaction

8. P. Prop- Closed by the payment of $250,000 to the Packet Company. All of the

erty at | wooden structure of their pier was demolished and the remaining iron

Colon. piles used for the construction of an off-shore berthing station for small

, trading vessels.

Claim of C. A Memorial claim was presented to the U.S. State Department by the

8. A.deV. C_§, A. de V. (Chilian Line) for refund of a large amount of money paid
to this Company at Balboa for wharfage and lighterage charges on through-
cargo during the period from November Ist, 1910 and for so long as the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company and other Lines engaged in United
States Coastwise traffic on the Pacific side were exempted from such
charges; the said claim was transmitted by the State Department to the
Secretary of War and by him to the Board of Directors of this Company

for consideration and report, and their adverse conclusion as to the justice
and validity of the claim was sustained and the State Department so
advised by the Secretary of War.

Cattle In- _ In connection with the detailed information given herein under the

dustry. heading of ‘‘Cattle Industry’’ it became necessary to make additional
provision for the transportation to the Isthmus of cattle purchased in
Colombia, and accordingly the 8S. S. ‘“Middlebury,” a single deck steamer
of 3,909 gross tons, was chartered on April 14th last under the Bare Ship
form from the U. S. Shipping Board at their regular charter rates per
month. The term of charter was for six months with an option to this
Company of renewal for a further like period. This Company was allowed

the privilege of altering the ship at its own expense as necessary to fit her
as a cattle ship upon condition that she be restored to her original form
as a single decker when she is redelivered.

Shipments Under an arrangement effected in 1917 between the Chief Quarter-

of Beef for master and the Army Supply Department on the Isthmus the excess beef

ATEN: product of our slaughtering and refrigerating plant on the Isthmus was