Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa from 1873 to 1884, Volume 1 (1919).djvu/32

12 Other important acts of the session of 1874 were one for taking a census, one permitting free testamentary disposition of property, and one for detaining the Hlubi chief Langalibalele and his son Malambule, who had been pronounced guilty of rebellion in Natal, as prisoners on Robben Island, as Natal had no place in which they could be confined in safety, and it was regarded as necessary for the peace of South Africa that they should be kept in security. Provision was made for the construction of three bridges over the Orange river and for the improvement of various ports, among which was Port Nolloth on the coast of Little Namaqualand, where copper ore was shipped for Swansea.

But what makes this session more decidedly a memorable one was the approval of the construction of some eight hundred miles or twelve hundred and eighty kilometres of additional railroad at an estimated cost of £5,000,000. The line was being extended from Wellington to Worcester, in accordance with a resolution of parliament in the preceding year, and now a further extension by way of the Hex river kloof and over the karoo to Beaufort West was authorised. The property of the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage Railway Company was purchased, and from Zwartkops Eiver, where on the 2nd of January of this year 1874 the line from Port Elizabeth had been opened, there were to be extensions to Graaff-Reinet and to the Bushman's river. From East London there was to be a line to Queenstown, with a short branch from Blaney station to King-Williamstown. This was a tremendous leap forward for a colony with a European population of less than a quarter of a million, but it was a necessary advance if the interior was to be opened up, as there were no navigable rivers, and ox-waggon traffic was not only slow and expensive, but was often interrupted.

The progress made in the construction of the railroads previously authorised is here shown. From Wellington