Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/26

6 hours and a half a week. In course of time the Bantu labourers became so expert that they only needed supervision, and then fewer white men were required except for mechanical purposes.

On the 1st of January of this year the existing line of railway from Capetown to Wellington was transferred to the government by the Company that owned it. The branch from Salt River to Wynberg, however, remained in private hands until July 1876, when it too became the property of the government. On the 1st of July 1873 the telegraphs were purchased also, and since that date have been exclusively owned by the state.

It was resolved that the gauge of the lines of railway about to be constructed should be 106.5 centimetres or 42 English inches. They were to run inland from Capetown, Port Elizabeth, and East London, so that none of these ports should be favoured more than either of the others. At the last named of these places Mr. J. C. Molteno, the prime minister of the colony, who was then making a tour through the eastern districts, on the 19th of August 1873 turned the first sod of the line to Queenstown, and also tilted the first load of stones for the breakwater.

In February 1873 a monthly mail service was commenced by the Union Company between Capetown and Aden, the steamships calling each way at Natal, Delagoa Bay, Mozambique, and Zanzibar.

At this time the mails between the Cape and England were conveyed twice monthly by the Union Company, under a contract which allowed thirty-seven days for the passage each way. As this contract would shortly expire, the imperial authorities entered provisionally into a new one with the same company to convey the mails to the 1st of January 1881 three times monthly each way, the passages not to exceed thirty days, and the postage on letters to be one shilling the half ounce, of which the company was to receive ten pence. This arrangement