CAPE TO CAIRO
The Cape to Cairo railway is continuing to make steady progress towards completion, and in the interior of the African Continent the engineers employed upon the great work are month after month overcoming difficulties and dangers. An important deviation from the projected route has just been announced, and will enable the railway to tap the immensely rich copper district in the Congo Free State. Enormous deposits of copper ore were discovered in the Free State some years ago, but they have not been worked to any extent, because of the distance of the mines from any port or railway. Negotiations were entered into for the extension of the railway from the present terminus at Broken Hill to Mabaya, an important point on the Congo frontier. The understanding is that if the British line is carried to the frontier, the Belgian financiers will continue the railway from the frontier in a north-westerly direction to Ruwe. This will tap the copper belt, which is in the Katanga district, in the South of the Free State, and it is expected that the line will be through from Lobito Bay to the Katanga district in about six years from the present time. The line will join the Rhodesian system and will thus save the long sea journey round the Cape or through the Suez Canal. The Katanga copper belt, it is stated, will rival the Rand in the production of wealth. The world's supply of copper is limited, and the price has increased steadily of recent years, owing to the enormously increased use of copper in connection with electric appliance.-. The deviation of the line would be justified by this consideration, and moreover it will be of very great value in connecting the port at Lobito Bay, in Portuguese Wo-t Africa, v. ill-, Rhodesia. The prntrre:-.- mad'- by the Cape to Cairn !in< has Lei.:! fairly rapid. The railhead at the southern portion was at Kimberly in 1890, and the Cape Town-Bulawayo section was open in 1897. The Zambesi river was reached in 1901, and the bridge over the river at the Victoria Falls was declared open in the following year. In 1906 Broken Hill was reached, 100 miles north of the Zambesi and 2100 miles north of Cape Town. The railway from Cairo southward has reached Khartoum, and with the projected portion is 1600 miles long.
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King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 20 May 1909, Page 4
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396CAPE TO CAIRO King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 157, 20 May 1909, Page 4
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