THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 423 



The Cape long suffered from the lack of railway 

 communication, and, until the last few years, nearly 

 every article of consumption and of commerce was 

 dragged up and down country by the expensive 

 and painfully laborious medium of the old-world 

 ox-waggon. The first railway in the Colony was 

 begun so recently as 1859. It was not until 1875 that 

 any considerable progress was made in this direction. 

 Within the last twelve years the advance in railway 

 communication has, however, been extremely rapid. 

 The lines from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to 

 Kimberley have been for some time completed, and 

 the Colony has now some 1,600 miles of railroads, 

 constructed at a cost of 13,407,385. 



The Witwatersrand gold-fields of the Transvaal, 

 destined, as Sir Donald Currie tells us, to become 

 among the richest in the world, are already exer- 

 cising beneficial influence on the Kimberley line, as 

 witness the very marked increase in this last year's 

 income of the Cape railways. It will not be long 

 probably before further communication is opened 

 up with the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and 

 the far interior (through Bechuanaland) ; and the 

 Cape will proportionately benefit thereby. It is true 

 that the Transvaal and its President have hitherto 

 declined to entertain an extension into their territory 

 from the south-west, and the Orange Free State 

 Volksraad have postponed a proposed railway from 

 Kimberley through their territory for the space of a 

 year ; but, after all, wiser councils may prevail, and 

 it may yet be hoped that united action of the South 

 African States and Colonies may be arranged. 

 But whatever the event, if our colonial authorities 

 are vigilant, will keep an eye on Swaziland and 



