CECIL RHODES' DREAM FULFILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

CECIL RHODES' DREAM FULFILLED.

RAILWAY ACROSS DARKEST AFRICA. ENGLISHMAN'S TRIP. An Englishman has just returned to London after a trip across tlie heart of Africa, and reports that travelling in the sub-continent is on the eve of being revolutionised.

lie is Mr. T. Alexander Barns, explorer and naturalist. Jle told a "Daily Chronicle" representative how he journeyed 770 miles on the new railway, which connects Lobito, on the west coast, with Daressalam, 011 the east, by joining up with the great Cape to Cairo route.

"The whole of the track is not yet open," he said, "but I was permitted to cover the entire distance from Luacano, on the Belgian Congo frontier, to Lobito Bay. This portion is British property and enterprise, although it runs through Angola, which is Portuguese territory. Revolutionise Travel. "From Luacano to Elisabethville, where the junction is made with the Cape to Cairo route, the Belgians are building a railway, and until this is ready they are running a motor service which makes the open route to Daressalam from Lobito Bay, already an accomplished fact. It is no exaggeration to say that the new railway will revolutionise travel in the heart ol Africa. Its importance to British commerce and to Central African industry cannot be overestimated. It means that there will be direct contact with a vast area tremendously rich in mineral and agricultural wealth, but awaiting full development.

"Hitherto it has been necessary to reach it either by way of the Cape or from the north by way of the Suez Canal, where canal dues have added considerably to expense of the longer journey—longer by more than 2000 miles. Similarly, the products of the countries tapped by the railway can be shipped abroad at a great saving of ti'rie and money in freightage.

"Tourists also will find their way made easier and cheaper, without sacrificing any of the spice of travel, for the countries passed through are some of the most interesting in all Africa.

"This ;vas the railway Cecil Rhodes schemed after he had sent his prospecting engineer, Mr. Robert Williams, exploring the country in connection with his original project of a Cape to Cairo railway.

"It was the great statesman's idea to link the heart of Africa with the West Coast, and he talked about it frequently with Mr. Williams. Now Mr. Williams has accomplished his late chief's big idea."