The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-26
THE IBERIA RAILWAY.

England's Back Door Route to Rhode sia, Against Which the Transvaal Has Protested to Portugal.
 The Beira railway, which is now att tracting public attention, was the out come of an agreement made between
 Great Britain and Portugal on June H.
 1891, mainly for the purpose of fixing the respective frontiers, following on the
 taking over of Lobengula's territories
 by the British South African company,
 though the final arrangements respect
 ing these frontier questions were not
 made until a later date. Under the
 agreement in question the Portuguese
 government undertook, among other things, the construction of line of rail- way which would connect Rhodesa with
 the sea, at Beira, and they further guaranteed not to impose any transit duty on goods higher than three per cent The original concession was granted the Mozambique company; but eventually it was transferred, through MT. H. T. van Laun, to the Beira rail- way company, which was registered in London in July, 1892, with debenture capital only. The line from Beira to the Portuguese frontier, was constructed in sections, and when, in July, 1896, the Mashonaland field force passed this way, they were able to use the sections lying between Fontesvilla, which is for ty-five miles up the River Pungwe, to Chimoio, distance of one hundred and fifty miles from Beira. The complete
 line up to New Umtali, the frontier as then fixed upon, was finished by July, 1898. The total length of the Beira line is two hundred and three miles, a great CT distance than was originally contem- plated, partly because the boundary be- tween the British and the Portuguese SpheFes of influence had, in the mean
 time, been moved seventeen miles west ward, and partly because of the detours which had to be made owing to the hilly nature of the country Thus between Fontesvila and Chimoio the distance,
 as the crow flies, is seventy-five miles,
 but the line winds one hundred and twenty, while 1t rises steadily from Bei- "a until at Umtali it reaches an eleva- tion of 3,450 feet. In the circumstances it is not surprising that the average rate of speed for passenger trains is only twelve miles an hour, and for goods trains ten miles an hour. The complete journey from Beira to Umtali generally takes two days, night being spent at stopping place en route.
 At Umtal the line connects with that of the Mashonaland railway company, which runs thence to Salisbury, the cap- ital of Rhodesia, distance of about one hundred and seventy miles. This Umtali- Salisbury line was constructed D,;t African company, which guaranteed the payment of interest on the debentures. The raison d'etre of the whole line from Salisbury to Beira is, of course, the de- velopment of Rhodesia, which thus gets a three hundred and seventy-three mile railway journey to the sea on the east coast as an alternative to the 1850 miles from Bulawayo to Cape Town on the south. Eventually the Cape Rail- way, which now has its terminus at Bulawayo, will be extended via Gwelo to meet the line at Salisbury, and Cape Town will then be in direct railway communication with Beira, total length of two thousand miles of contin- uous railway being available for this purpose. At the present moment, how ever, there is no railway between Sails bury and Bulawayo, a distance of two hundred and eighty miles, and the ordi- nary traveller proceeding from the one place to the other does so either by coach, which accomplishes the journey in five days and costs twelve pounds, or by bullock wagon, which is both slower and cheaper. The Beira-Umtali line was originally constructed on two- foot gauge, the carriages overhanging the wheels to about the same extent on each side. The Umtali-Salisbury line, however was made on the three-foot siX-inch standard of the Cape railway system, and the Beira railway Is now being relaid so that 1t now corresponds with the same standard, with the excep- tion of some sixty miles, thus avoiding the delay inconvenience and expense of trans-shipment. Good progress has already been made with this work, but without any Interruption in the service, | thn nn1J 6iffarannp he trn eff