But I should like, also, to see the contemplated line
constructed from Kimberley, through the Orange Free State, to
Bloemfontein; and the Delagoa Bay Railway carried on to Pretoria, as
well as the Natal line to Johannesburg; and, in fact, any other, whether
through Swaziland, or elsewhere, which commercial enterprise may
hereafter project. They will all have the effect of opening up the
Transvaal--the El Dorado of South Africa--and meeting the demand for
the transit of the enormous traffic, with which the old system of
bullock wagons is utterly unable to grapple, and which, consequently, is
so fearfully congested. The transport riders will have ample
compensation, under the new system, in their increased employment in the
conveyance of goods from the various stations to their actual
destination. It was in this way the coach proprietors, without loss, and
with great advantage to themselves, became the great and successful
railway carriers, when stage coaches were superseded by railways in
England.
Since I arrived in England, Sir Gordon Sprigg, in an important speech
delivered at Kimberley, referred to the question of railway extension
from that town in the following words:--"With the South Atlantic Ocean
for our base, we started with our railway, and then we came up to
Kimberley.
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