THE DEVELOPMENT OF RHODESIA AND ITS RAILWAY 

 SYSTEM IN RELATION TO OCEANIC HIGHWAYS. '^ 



By J. T. P. Heatley. 



In a former paper on '' The port of the Upper Nile in rehition to 

 the highways of foreign trade " ^ it was my aim to discuss the lines of 

 commnnication leading to the Upper Nile from Alexandria, Suakin, 

 Massaua, Berbera, Mombasa, and Chinde, and to determine the eco- 

 nomic zones that might be commanded by the highways of trade from 

 these several ports. It is my aim in this paper to give an account of 

 the economic development of Rhodesia, and to discuss its railway sys- 

 tem in relation to the oceanic highways. 



Rhodesia comprises those territories the development of which is 

 directed by the British South Africa Compan3^ It is well named, 

 for it was owing to the energy, enterprise, and sagacity of Mr. Rhodes 

 that the colony was founded and now forms part of the British Em- 

 pire. " To see all that British is my dream ! *' Mr. Rhodes is said to 

 have exclaimed when referring to the possible acquisition of these 

 vast territories. As originally defined in the charter of incorpora- 

 tion, the extent of territory open to occupation b}^ the South Africa 

 Company was " the region of South Africa lying immediately to the 

 north of British Bechuanaland, and to the north and west of the 

 South African Republic and to the west of the Portuguese domin- 

 ions." Its sphere is now bounded by the Transvaal Colony, Portu- 

 guese East Africa, the British Central Africa Protectorate. German 

 East Africa, the Kongo Free State, Angola, German Southwest Af- 

 rica, and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. It is divided into two 

 parts by the Zambezi — Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia, 

 and each of these again is subdivided into two provinces — Southern 

 Rhodesia into Matabeleland and Mashonaland ; Northern Rhodesia 

 into Northwestern Rhodesia and Northeastern Rhodesia. 



Africa is a continent of table-lands, and Rhodesia, physically 

 viewed, consists chiefly of a vast elevated table-land, the general alti- 



" Reprinted, by permission, from The Scottish Geographical Magazine, Edin- 

 burgh, Vol. XXI, No. ?>, March, 190.5. The magazine article includes some 

 maps and illustrations here omitted. 



& Scottish Geographical Magazine, XI, p. 571. 



279 



