The Cape to Cairo Railway.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 276, 30 October 1902, Page 4

The Cape to Cairo Railway.

Mr E. o. Grogaa, who was r< cently in New Zealand, has sown ~ interesting remarks wi.b the usefulness of the Cape to Cairo railway in the new and revised edition of his book, "From the Cape to Cairo, 1 ' just published by iMessra Hurst and Blackett. Mr iGrogan has covered the whole distance, mostly on foot. He writes : " Since bringing out the first edition of my book I have revisited | the United States, Australasia, and .Argentina, in order that I might 'again compare the difficulties which these new countries have already overcome. lam now more than ever satisfied that its possibilities are infinitely great. Of the fertility and natnral resources of the country I had no doubt. But two great stumbling blocks loomed ahead ; they were the prevalence of malaria and the difficulty of initial development owing to the dearth of navigable waterways. The epoch-making discoveries of Major Ross aud other- scientists of the influence of the mosquito on the distribution of malaria have shown that we are within ineaeureable distance of largely minimising its ravages, if not of completely removing it from the necessary risks of African life, A comparison of the death rates in Calcutta, Hong Kong, and other malarious - regions with the present rates has also proved how immense is the influence of settlement on climate. As to the other obstacle —the question of access—l was amazed to find that in the United States the railways practically have absorbed all the carrying trade of the magnificent waterways which intersect the whole country east of the Rockies. Naturally these waterways were of immense assistance in the original opening up of the country, but now that the railways are constructed they are of little importance. I would also point out to those who still profess mistrust of the practical objects of railway construction in Africa the object .lesson which the transAmerican lines afford. They are pushed ahead of all settlement into the great unknown exactly as the Cape to Cairo line is being pushed ahead to-day. But there is this difference : in America they penetrated silent wastes tenanted by naught else than the irreconcilable Redskin, the prairie marmot, and the bison, whilst in Africa they pass through lands rich in nature's products and teeming with peoples who do not recede before the white man's march. Another point :

when the main railway system of Africa, as sketched out by Mr Rhodes, is complete, there will be no single point as remote from a port as are some of the districts in America which are to-day pouring iout their foodstuffs along hundreds of miies of rail."