ACROSS AFRICA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 187, 7 August 1913, Page 8

ACROSS AFRICA.

* ' IJEv7 SERVICE NEARLY MAST. BY. RAIL AND STEAMER. To croas Africa from ocean to ocean with no more trouble than is involved In dunging from train to steamer and from steamer to train at various points on tho journey cannot yet be accomplished, but in a few months' time tho missing links in the existing services will be completed, and from tbe west coast it will be possible to travel direct to Zanzibar. The new route will be by the Congo River and German Eoat Africa. For some time, by building railways connecting the navigable stretches of the Congo, the Belgians have maintained a combined river-steamer and railway service from tbe mouth of that river Into tho Tery heart of Africa, while tho Germans from Dares Salaam, on the east coaat, have been building a railway inland to Lake Tanganyika. That iako has also been one of the objectives of the Belgians, and two years ago they began the building of a railway to *the lake from the nearest navigable part of the Lualaba, as tho Upper Congo 1* called, When both the Belgian and German railways reach Tanganyika they will Iw joined by a line of lake steamers, and tho rail and steamer service between the Atlantio and Indian Oceana will be complete, WHERE 'LIVINGSTONE WAS FOUND, Mill new* from tbe Congo and German East Africa, Just received, tells ol the approaching attainment of Tanganyika •by •both railway*. The German lino waa opened to Tabora, 620 mile* from tho coast, nearly a year ago, Last month a further section of 100 milea was opened to traffic, and tho final section of HO mile* I* expected to lie finished by April next. Tha iako terminus will bo at Klj-oms, a little south of l.'jiji, tin. (own famoiM a* the mcctlng-plnco of Htanlry and Livingstone. The Belgian Tanganyika railway start* from Kabola, and it* iako tcrmlnll* will be at Lnkuga, a newly-created port. At the beginning of list month the rail* had been laid up io the one hundred and second mile nnd the earthworka completed for another thirty miles, Tho last section will involve some ardnou* work, as a rapid descent has to be made from high land to the level of the lake, but It is confidently expected that the line will reach the Inko before the German railway is finished, From •Lukuga, on the west coast of Tanganyika, to Klgoma on the cost coast is about eighty miles, so that by what may be called the Tanganyika route the distance from sea to sea, across Africa, will be about 3,200 miles. The journey will have to be taken in nino stages, five by railway and four by steamer, and will occupy about 10 days. A NEW LAND FOR TOURISTS. It is scarcely necessary to add that these services liave not been opened with the idea of fostering through traffic, but , to serve local needs. But just as the . -Nile route and the Uganda railway have : attracted" tourists in considerable num- , bcrs, so should this East nnd West route , across the continent. The. traveller with the time and the money would find tho journey well worth taking, for it opens ip the finest river, lake, forest, and park scenery of Central Africa, as well as affording an. opportunity for a study of many diverse tribes in various stages of savagery and civilisation.