DKVKLOl'MKXT OF THE COASTAL liELT OF SOUTH AFRICA. 22T, 



<>\ bridges, few and far l)et\veen, causeways at a twentieth the 

 cost of bridges could be constructed as frequently as drifts. 

 I-ivery few miles down the river there would be ix)wer available 

 to form village centres of industry, connected up by means of a 

 railway with the large industrial centre of Kingvvilliamstown on 

 the one side, and the port of East London on the other. The 

 industrial centres would develop around them a number of small 

 farms, intensively cultivated, to supply them with vegetables, 

 butter, cheese, etc. These small farms would be encouraged to 

 build small dams across every available kloof, to conserve 

 suiTficient water to irrigate such valuable crops as lucerne and 

 vegetables during the comparatively short, dry periods of the 

 coastal belt. They would also undertake fruit-growing, and so 

 increase the fruit-growing export trade of the coastal area. With 

 cheap sugar, also grown in the coastal belt, they would develop 

 a large export jam trade. The industrial development would be 

 further helped by a supply of cheap charcoal for suction gas 

 from the large and growing w^attle plantations of the district. 



What would happen in the Buffalo Valley would, no doubt, 

 happen to the whole of the coastal belt, if similarly developed. 

 As an industrial centre, apart from the possibilities of cheap 

 power, the coastal belt of South Africa has four unique advan- 

 tages, as compared with Europe. Firstly, there is a considerable 

 supply of cheap, unskilled labour ; secondly, a combination of 

 sunshine and rain, meaning cheap agricultural production, and 

 therefore cheap living; thirdly, there is easy access to holiday 

 resorts — either the coast on the one side, or the forest mountains 

 on the other — meaning cheap holidays and recreation for the 

 W'Orkers ; and, fourthly, what is most important of all, easy access 

 to the rich raw' materials of tropical Africa, which is so important 

 to modern civilisation. For instance, the palm oil and palm 

 kernels, the ground nut and rubber, the cocoa and cotton, the 

 valuable timber trees, ebony, lignum vitcc, mahogany, etc., instead 

 of being shipped by steamers to Europe, could be more cheaply 

 brought by sailing ships and tramp steamers around the coast to 

 the South African ports, to be manufactured in the great 

 indus/trial area of the coastal belt of South Africa, for export 

 as manufactured articles to all parts of the world. Perhaps 

 one of the greatest future products of tropical Africa will be 

 the supply of the raw materials for the manufacture of tlie world's 

 paper. As is well known, timber, the present raw material for 

 paper, is being rapidly exhausted. It takes the Northern forests 

 a long time to grow again, whereas the long grasses of tropical 

 Africa are burnt down and replaced every year, forming a 

 permanent supply of raw material for paper-making. Tf the 

 present natural .grasses of tropical Africa are found to be 

 unsuitable for paper making, then it will be necessary to plant 

 these tropical lands with grasses which are suitable. 



It is of great importance, for the future of South Africa, 

 that everv effort should be made to capture the raw materials 



