The contract for the construction of the first sixty miles compels admiration, if only for its impudence.  In the first place the contractors, Van Hattum and Co., were to build the line at a cost to be mutually agreed upon by them and the railway company, and they were to receive as remuneration 11 per cent. upon the amount of the specification.  But should they exceed the contract price then the 11 per cent. was to be proportionately decreased by an arranged sliding scale, provided, however, that Van Hattum and Co. did not exceed the specification by more than 100 per cent., in which latter case the Company would have the right to cancel the contract.  By this provision Messrs. Van Hattum and Co. could increase the cost by 100 per cent, provided they were willing to lose the 11 per cent. profit, leaving them a net gain of 89 per cent.  They did not neglect the opportunity.  Whole sections of earthworks cost L23,500 per mile, which should not have cost L8,000.  Close upon a thousand Hollanders were brought out from Holland to work for a few months in each year on the line and then be sent back to Holland again at the expense of the Republic.  In a country which abounded in stone the Komati Bridge was built of dressed stone which had been quarried and worked in Holland and exported some 7,000 miles by ship and rail.

These are a few instances out of many.  The loss to the country through the financing was of course far greater than any manipulation of the construction could bring about.  In the creating of overdrafts and the raising of loans very large sums indeed were handled.  Three-quarters of a million in one case and a million in another offered opportunities which the Hollander-German gentlemen who were doing business for the country out of love for it (as was frequently urged on their behalf in the Volksraad) were quick to perceive.  The 5 per cent. debentures issued to raise the latter sum were sold at L95 15s.; but the financiers deducted L5 commission from even this, so that the State has only benefited to the extent of L90 15s.  This transaction was effected at a time when the State loan known as the Transvaal Fives—­raised on exactly the same interest and precisely the same guarantee—­was quoted at over par.  What, however, was felt to be worse than any detail of finance was that this corporation of foreigners had gradually obtained complete control of the finances of the State, and through the railway system it practically dictated the relations with the other Governments in South Africa, by such measures for instance as the imposition of a charge of 8-1/2d. per ton per mile on goods travelling over their lines coming from the Cape Colony, whilst the other lines are favoured by a charge of less than half that.  The burdens placed upon the mining industry by the excessive charges imposed for political purposes were, in the case of the poorer mines, ruinous.  The right which the Company had to collect the Customs dues for account of the State, to retain them as security