The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1912. RAILROADING AFRICA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 23, 20 September 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1912. RAILROADING AFRICA.

Steady progress has been made of late years towards the realisation of Cecil Rhodes' great conception of a railway right through Africa, from the Cape to Cairo. What he advocated was a great trunk railroad, traversing the continent from north to south and connecting with East and West coastal ports by branch lines, thus giving outlet to the trade potentialities of Central Africa. Practically on these lines the scheme was started and has been continued. At the time of the Boer War the railway had reached Buluwayo and before the campaign closed the connecting line to Beira was nearly completed. Afterwards the trunk line was pushed oil to the Victoria Falls. The Zambesi river was bridged just below the Falls, and the railway carried on through north-western Rhodesia to the Congo country at the end of 1909. Here the line is being linked up with the West Coast of Africa by a railway from Lobito Bay, which runs through Portuguese West Africa and -then through the southern part of the Congo State. This connecting railway it is stated, will, in the near future.be of the greatest importance, as it will provide the nearest route for Central Africa from Europe. Passengers would be saved about fourteen hundred miles of sea voyage and nearly a thousand miles of railway journey in going from England to Katanga by the Lobito Bay route instead of the present route by Capetown. Meanwhile the railway track has been pushed forward steadily from Egypt, until El Obeid has been readied. A writer who knows the country states that to join up El Obeid and Katanga is likely to prove the most difficult part of the scheme; much of the country is swampy and in parts sleeping sickness is rife; the engineering obstacles may be partly solved by making use of the great lakes Tanganyika and Victoria Nyanza, and using water carriage instead of building a railway through this mountainous and difficult country. Another important "feeding-line" will connect with the trunk line when the Uganda Railway from Mombasa is pushed forward to join it; and it is thought to be possible that a railway through German East Africa will also connect the main line with the East Coast. On the west s : de a connection could be made with Stanleyville, or some other point on the Upper Congo River, and thus produce could lie carried by rail and waterway on the Congo to the West Coast ports. The development of Africa in the next few years is expected to be very great.

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

The connection between some of the

most difficult social problems of the day and the development of State education was touched upon by the UnderSecretary for Education in New South Wales at a« gathering held in Sydney in connection with the laying of the foundation-stone of a new departmental building. "At the present time," said Mr Board, "in practically every civilised Country in the world the industrial movement is gathering round educational systems. In England and America there is evidence that this will soon be so there, and in Australia very many of the problems that are confronting our statesmen are those to which they are looking for soms solution in the work of the Education Department. Now it is not illiteracy that is the danger to the community, but an elementary knowledge that is so insufficient that it carries with it no skill and no ability, and in that direction will lie the future activity of the Education Department. I think in the future education, not in this department merely but in all civilised communities will have to do with every-

thing that concerns the life of the people from infancy to adult age; and when one looks at the period that is covered one must see Low vast must be the educational development in order to cope with it. In the training of the youth towards the employment that is best suited for him the Education Department is in the future going to find its highest .and most important work."

WOMEN AND ATHLETICS.

"What would women twenty years ago have thought"of this?" was a question and a comment heard in the crowd that watched the final of the ladies' hockey championship at Christchurch, says the "Press." "Such a reflection must have been in the minds of many as they saw the two teams playing with such skill, dash, and endurance. The average woman of twenty years'' ago would have held her hands up in hor- i ror at the idea of girls playing such I a game, but, leaving out of considera- j tion the effect on girls of a long tournament, there did not seem to be anything in the display at Lancaster Park to which objection could be taken. It was a fine exhibition of scientific hockey played in the best spirit. No doubt some.of tho so-called stronger sex present had never before seen girls playing, serious hockey, and they must have been astonished at the pace with which the game was kept up. The afternoon was unusually hot for this time of the year, but play moved quick-, ly up and down the field from start; to finish, and'the players seemed never' to tire. No man would have cared to. 'play in such a fast game without training.'""'lf a draw in the final of a'long tournament cannot be ed satisfactory.,' there is consolation in the reflection that the teams were, so well matched that the result represented the play. Certainly the display pf, hockey, if. not the | result, was . a fitting conclusion to a very in'ferekting' and enjoyable tournament."