The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-18 00:00:00

CAPE.

Mr. W. F. De Salis, Mr. 11. Kimber, and Colonel
T. H. Sale, the consulting committee appointed at
the general meeting of the Cape Railway Company
on the 26th of April last, have just issued their re-
port as to the best steps to be taken to introduce the
Cape Government to extend the railway system into
the interior of the colony. The committee state in
their report that the subject of railway communi-
cation in the Cape Colony has of late assumed a
shape which cannot fail to create much anxiety in
the minds of all persons interested in the future
progress and permanent prosperity of that com-
munity. The question of railway extension into the
interior has long engaged the attention of the Exe-
cutive and the Parliament of the colony. At first
its importance was unanimously conceded, and in
1862 an Act was passed authorising certain exten-
sions to be effected, in order to carry out which the
Government invited tenders for the construction of
lines to Worcester and Malmesbury as extensions
in connexion with the Cape Railway system. The
terms, however, sanctioned by the Cape Parlia-
ment having failed to induce any contractor to
undertake the construction of the proposed lines,
the Executive again, in 1866, brought the subject
of railway extension under the consideration of
the Cape Parliament, recommending the concession
of terms more in unison with the ascertained state
of the market, but it was rejected. The committee
are of opinion that while the railway is limited to
its present length, and does not connect Cape Town
with the more important districts of the colony, it
cannot possess a good paying traffic. They state
hat the Cape colony got their first line constructed
virtually at an outlay of £500,000, as they only pay
6 per cent. interest on that amount, although the
actual cost to the proprietors was £680,000. The
guarantee being in addition to profits, it might
fairly have been expected that the profit resulting
from the working of the whole line would have been
sufficient to pay 6 per cent. on the whole of
the money expended on its construction ; but
the short-sighted policy adopted has rendered
this impossible,
and while the dividend had
lately sunk as low as 31 per cent., the neces-
sity has now been imposed on the shareholders
of foregoing for the half year all return on their
capital, in order to redeem unsecured loans. Much
of the extra cost of construction was forced by the
Government themselves on the company, including
a devious circuit of 14 miles of railway to Stellen-
bosch, which was now admitted on all hands to be
quite unnecessary.
The recommendations of the
committee are That a firm and respectful, but
definite, representation should be made by directors,
in the name of the proprietors to the Cape Govern-
ment—first, that public policy as.well as good faith
towards the shareholders of this company, in their
capacity of public creditors of the colony, alike de-
mand that the construction of the proposed exten-
sions to Worcester and Malmesbury as originally
authorised by the legislation of the colony should
now no longer be deferred ; secondly, that, viewing
the facts and circumstances in this report, the gua-
rantee ought, in common fairness and equity, to be
extended to the whole of the moneys expended by the
proprietors. That if the views of the committee are
participated in by the general body of shareholders the
directors should, by every means in their power,
diffuse these opinions among the public, both in
this country, in Holland,
in America, and at the
Cape, and agitate the question until a fair, just,
and generous consideration be accorded to the
claims of individuals who have freely advanced
their capital in order to confer the great public ad-
vantage of railway communication upon South
Africa, but whose efforts in this respect have
hitherto met with so poor a return at the hands
of the colonists."