THE GAPE TO CAIRO LINE.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 9, 24 January 1905, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE GAPE TO CAIRO LINE.

Sir Charles Metcalfe, who is superintending the extension of the railway from the Zambesi to Barotseland, has a scheme in hand for settling white people along the route from the Cape to Cairo line. Land will be given to bona fide settlers in free grants of 160 acres each, the plots being reserved at present between Buluwayo and Salisbury, and the first grants will be taken up at uie beginning of next year. The idea is to attract a white population so that the collection of produce to feed the line will not be entirely in native hands, if the experiment is successful with tjie colonists who have a little money of their own, the company will advance money so that their operations may be extended. Good progress, Sir Charles told an interviewer, is being made north of the Zambesi, on the section known as the Northern Extension, from Victoria Falls to Kalomo, the administrative centre of Barotseland, a distance of 100 miles. It is expected that the line to Kalomo will be opened in a few minths. By the end of the year it ought to be possible to run trains from Cape Town to the centre of the Barotse country. By next spring, when the line reaches Kalomo, the question will arise of the further extension of the rail towards Tanganyika. From Tanganyika it is probable that there will be two lines, one through the Congo and another through German territory. “There will be plenty of scope for two lines.” said Sir Charles, “one on either side of the Lake. I know there are people who think the Cape to Cairo line mythical. There are others who shrug their shoulders at this railway development, and say, ‘Will it pay?’ I am firmly of opinion that there will not be merely one line in this region, but that it will become a network of railways. It is quite impossible to say when the Cape to Cairo railway as a whole will become an accomplished fact, but I am sure it must become one at no very distant date. The way to make the Uganda railway a paying concern is to join it up with Khartoum, and if Sir William Garstin’s projects at Roseires are carried out, the line must be pushed on front Khartoum to Roseires. Thence, naturally, it must be gradually extended to the Uganda line.” I'ne work is to be carried on steadily, and the promoters already know where the capital will be obtained as it is required for construction.