South African Railways. 253 



country. The fact that the amount of the particular fares 

 are not printed, as they are in England and elsewhere, on 

 the tickets, can be explained only on the supposition that 

 the railway authorities make this strange omission for the 

 good-natured purpose of enabling their ticket clerks to get a 

 • bit ' out of incautious travellers. The habitues of these lines 

 of course know the proper fares or can readily find out where 

 the list is displayed ; but the stranger who has always been 

 accustomed to take for granted that he has, on the ticket he 

 receives, a record of the amount he paid, can hardly help 

 being swindled the first time he trusts to the honour of the 

 Africander ticket clerk. The cost of the fares far exceed that 

 of any other country in which I have travelled, and no attempt 

 is made to cater for the poorer class of passengers. Con- 

 sequently, the well-to-do Kafirs prefer, as a rule, to walk than 

 to submit to extortionate charges. I may point out that in 

 India, the people of which are extremely poor, there is an 

 immensely large native third-class traffic ; for the railway 

 companies of that Empire, by putting the tariff at less than 

 a farthing a mile, make railway travelling cheaper even for the 

 poorest than walking. Except when starting at one of the 

 main termini by an express train, the separate accommoda- 

 tion for ladies, and the sleeping arrangements for both sexes 

 are very inadequate. Any omission made at these principal 

 places can seldom if ever be rectified at any of the inter- 

 mediate stations ; for the officials seem to consider that their 

 sole duty is to blindly carry out the inflexible orders of their 

 superiors, and that they are in no way bound to study the 

 interests of their real employers, the travelling public. The 

 restrictions put on the carrying of luggage are as severe as 

 they are in Germany, and the charge for excess of luggage is 

 much higher. If the railway authorities were taken to task 

 on the foregoing points, they would, no doubt, plead that as 

 the number of their passengers are small, they have to charge 

 them highly. To this I may reply that by doing so they 

 adopt the most effective means of checking any increase in 



