subsidy, from Bathurst to Sierra Leone, thence to Accra, and thence to Lagos, Brass, and Bonny. All these were British Colonies, and the question had thus been solved.
If the first transformation-scene in the West African system occurred in 1886, the second occurred in 1889. Bonny, as already stated, was the British station nearest to the Cape, and the cable had reached it already. But in 1889 a cable was laid thence to Principe, a Portuguese island to the south. From Principe a cable already ran to St. Thome and Loanda, and the control of this latter line of cable had already been acquired by us. Finally, from Loanda, in the same year (1889), a line of cable was laid viâ the Portuguese possessions to Cape Town itself. The great achievement had now been executed of a duplicate line, laid on either side of Africa, to Durban on one side and Cape Town on the other.
To revert to our West African Colonies, the rates to these have been high. The Cable Committee of 1902 reported against these rates, and these alone in the whole British Empire: *We are not prepared to say that any of the existing rates are excessive, with the exception of those to the Gold Coast and Nigeria.'[1] These, however, have now been reduced. For instance, the rate to Sierra Leone, originally 6s. 9d., has been reduced by successive stages till it stands, according to the reduction of July, 1904, at 3s. 6d. Correspondingly with other rates.
There were two main reasons for these high rates. The expenses on that coast are heavy. Owing to its terrible climate, three operators have to be provided where two would suffice elsewhere. Then the cables lie near the shore, and are liable to be broken or to deteriorate more readily than deep-sea cables. The Congo River has constantly broken the cables, like the Rovuma River on the East Coast. Finally, though there was a brief-lived gold boom in 1901, the traffic
- ↑ Second Report, Summary, Section XI.
