CAPE TO CAIRO TELEGRAPH.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7630, 23 January 1903, Page 3

CAPE TO CAIRO TELEGRAPH.

Over a hundred engineers, and a large army of several thousand blacks, are engaged in building the telegraph from the Cape to Cairo. Wide roads have been cut through the jungle, so as to prevent the rankj tall overgrowth engulfing the wires, and also to facilitate the effecting of any repairs that may be necessary When the wire traverses through forests a wide clearing is made, and the telegraph posts are planted in the centre of this track. The object of this is to prevent trees or branches, in falling, from colliding with the posts or breaking the wire. When the line was commenced this precaution was not observed, with the result that the service was repeatedly interrupted. from this cause. The elephants hav6 occasioned considerable trouble. These heavy, cumbersome animals evince a peculiar partiality for chafing their bodies against the steel posts, with dire results to the latter. The line, however, is now so well patrolled that any failure of the service can be expeditiously remedied.