Presidknt's Addhkss — Skcts. H and C. 53 



i;r.)\viinf and tea plaiitiitions, ami planned out iron wuiks at Woest 

 Hill. Ultimately, however, lie intended Port Alfred t« be tl)e 

 terminus of the Kowie-Khartoum railway. 



Aftei- the econojnic revival of the Cape eonseijuent <>n the discovery 

 of diamonds the (|uestion ar<ise of coiniecting the Cape with Kuiope hy 

 telegraph. In 1S7S the telegraph system of the Cape was joined U) 

 that of Natal with a \ iew of eventually linkyig up with an east coast 

 cable, which was actually carried out in the following year. Dr. 

 Atherstone said, " No ; why lay a cable down in the l)ed of the ocean 

 where it benefits nobod}', and costs an innnense sum to make it sutK- 

 ciently strojig to resist the corroding effect of the sea-water ; why not 

 run a line through the heart of the country to Egypt, and open up the 

 Dark Continent to civilisation V In 1877 Sivewright, afterwards Sir 

 James, visited Grahamstown, and gave a lecture on telegraphy ; Dr. 

 Atherstone laid before him bis plans, showing the accounts which he 

 ha<l at first hand from the many explorers who had set out into the 

 interior from Grahamstown, pi-oving that the scheme was feasible and 

 economically possil^le, and he records in his notes that Sivewright was 

 entirely convinced. But this \\as the initial stage of his great scheme 

 for a Kimberley-Khartoum railway ; the project, in its entirety, even 

 to the alliteration, is now being carried out, but had it been co)n- 

 menced in the seventies all the international complicatii>ns which now 

 stand in the way of its successful accomplishment would have been 

 avoided, and the whole course of history in South Africa would ha\e 

 been changed ; as a matter of fact South Africa would not have existed 

 as a separate entity, but as one province of a British Africa. When 

 the Lualaba was proved by Cameron to be a portion of the Congo, 

 Atherstone urged the amiexation of the Congo area by Britain as a 

 necessary support for his trans-c<mtinental railway. In 1^7o Dr. 

 Atherstone himself travelled up as far as the northern Transvaal 

 dreaming of his scheme, and \isiting by the way Kimbeiley and the 

 Lydenburg gold-fields, and in 1875 he went home, and submitted his 

 proposals to the Colonial Otfice ; but although Sir William Siemens and 

 Sir Donald Currie were prepared to back the scheme, it Avas not taken 

 up by the Government. To have proved the practicability of the scheme 

 so far back as 1875, iKjwever, was undoubtedly a preparation for its 

 accomplishment in future years, and T do claim that the Cape to Cairo 

 railway will owe something to the Kiml^erley-Khartoum project.* 



There remains little that I can here add in this short sketch 

 except to record the service Dr. Atherstone did to better the condition 

 of the insane in this country. His visit to Europe in 1875 was largely 

 devoted t<3 inspection of asylums at h<ime and on the Continent, and 

 his leave was e.xtended by 3Iolteno on account of the valuable work he 

 was doing. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons 



* I <iiiiii<it find ill tlic iiott'N at my tlis]n)>.;il tliat Dr. Atherstone came 

 into direct communication witli tlie late (". .1. Ilhixles at tliis early date; 

 Dr. Atlieistone prepared the way tor tlie hitter's jirojects by familiarising 

 people with the s«diemes V)eforelianii. 



