THE CAPE TO CAIRO LINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 273, 28 April 1915, Page 2

THE CAPE TO CAIRO LINE.

WHAT A "PIUZE" FOR GERMANY! Some time in the year 1915 the. last spike will he driven in the 2000-mile railway stretching from the Gape of Good Hope to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, in the heart of Africa, and with that act will be completed the longest link in the great Cape-to-Cairo railway of which Cecil Rhodes dreamed anil to the promotion of which he devoted the later years of his life.

Out of a total of a little more than GOOO mill's required for connecting Capetown with Cairo, practically 4000 miles will have been built with the completion ol -the railway construction now in progress south of Lake Tanganyika. Of the remaining links, five arc'navigable waterways on which lake or river steamers can he. used. Three will require the construction of railways aggregating only 410 miles in length, and with the completion of these there will be established an all-steam route consisting of a succession of railways and steamboat lines connecting Capetown with Cairo. lUp construction of these lines can only " mat J er °f a yar or two. while the full completion of the all-rail route will doubtless come in a short time as time is measured in projects of such magnitude. Vl,™ Cecil Rhodes died he'left tiu most dilhcult parts of the lire not only planned, but financed. I Particular interest is given to this great undertaking at the present time by the European war. If the Herman arms are victorious the Cape-to-Cairi. railway, with the territory it serves will be one of the richest prizes to fall to the victor. If (Germany is defeated ' that country will doubtless lose its Af- I rican possessions, which include German I hast Atrica, with the result that the j construction of that portion of the allrail route extending from the southern end ol Lake Tanganyika to Uganda will ue greatly simplified. The best location or the railway lies to the east of tins lake, in German territory.