Personally, I am anxious to see the line over the ground which I have myself treked, pushed on as speedily as possible, from Kimberley to Vryburg, and thence through British Bechuanaland to Mafeking, and so on, northwards, into the Matabele country, with branches eastward into the Transvaal.  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loss, and with great advantage to themselves, became the great and successful railway carriers, when stage coaches were superseded by railways in England.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.  From this place we have only fifty or sixty miles to go over, and then we come to the border of this province, and of British Bechuanaland.  Farther north, we get to that ill-defined sphere, called the sphere of influence, that extended the power of Britain in South Africa, as far as the Zambesi....  Now that we have our railway up to Kimberley, we have the British South African Company to take it in hand, and the object of the Government is to see that we have an extension line into these territories which will, in time to come, be recognised as portions of the Cape Colony.  Gentlemen, I and my colleagues have come to the conclusion, that we cannot better advance the best interests of South Africa than by joining hand-in-hand to advance British interests westward of the Transvaal State, and right up to the Zambesi.  Well, then, that being so, I may say, that the first object of the Company, in order to carry on their operations to the best purpose, is to construct a railway from Kimberley to Vryburg.  The section from Kimberley to Warrenton has, of course, first to be undertaken, and from there on to Vryburg, as the second section.  The Company are in possession of the requisite funds to carry out this great work; and there is no reason why it should not be accomplished before many month’s are over.  The Government of this country (Cape Colony) have come to the conclusion