"Beside the systems of navigable rivers, which constitute a natural means of communication and invaluable facilities of access, all highways of communication which permit transportation by means other than the back of man, animals of burden, or vehicles on ordinary wheels, constitute the first mechanism for the extension of civilization, the opening and clearing of virgin soil by the activity of the superior races for the local benefit of the native population.

"The railways, which of all means of transportation are the most simple to construct, the most powerful, quickest, and, in the long run, the most economical, are therefore likely to play the most important part during the near future.

"They bring into close contact the most distant territories with the colonizing country, create the means of easy and rapid access, assure through the fact of great mobility an effective policing of the different regions, permit commerce to spring up everywhere, to receive from Europe the commodities which the native may wish to have, and to send in return to the markets of the civilized world the natural products of the colony which constitute the equivalent of the goods received.

"These are the factors which abolish the former isolation of barbarous regions, and it is through them that our civilization, the product of the activity and labor of the higher races during centuries, modified to meet the special conditions, is able to penetrate, and that even the most primitive peoples are enabled to pass from the period of infancy to that of the mature and manly age, and that almost without transition.

"The facts have universally confirmed the principle that civilization follows the locomotive. This statement, moreover, seems to be so well established and universally recognized that it would be tiresome to dwell on it any longer.

"From the hour of the first occupation of the colony care should be taken to furnish it with railways which might give access successively and in proper order to all its regions or at least principal centers.

"A study of the railway question, therefore, is of ever-increasing interest to all those who devote themselves to the study of colonial matters at large.

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GUARANTEES TO PRIVATE CAPITAL IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS IN THE NEW COUNTRIES.

"The answers received to inquiries sent out by the committee with regard to the question of interest guarantee do not show any agreement of opinion on this point.

"In the case of certain railways-for example, that of the Usambara and the independent State of Congo-the State has refrained from offering a guarantee to private capital engaged in this matter. This is accounted for by the unsatisfactory financial condition of the young colonies, whose entire resources were hardly sufficient to meet the expenditures of the administration and occupation of the territories in question.

"In these cases, when the interference of the State directly interested can not have a pecuniary character, it should at least by way of compensation accord all the advantages within its power-higher railway tariffs, freedom from taxation during a certain period, facility in the hiring of the necessary labor force, the utilization of the forests, quarries, and waterfalls encountered, etc.; furthermore, the grant in fee simple of lands, mines, quarries, etc., in proportion with the risks incurred by the companies. All these things have been perfectly understood by the German Government and that of the Congo with regard to railways constructed under their jurisdiction. Other railways have been able to obtain an official guarantee on their capital, ranging between 3 and 4 per cent. The same holds true with respect to most of the railways in India, Algeria, and other countries.

"In the case of these railways no land grants were given, the guarantee of the home Government being deemed sufficient to cover the comparatively lesser risks in these countries with a relatively more advanced economic culture, in which, moreover, vacant lands owned by the State are, as a general rule, wanting.

"Finally, certain railway companies have been able to obtain very high interest guarantees. Among them the more important are the railways in the southwestern part of Brazil, which have a minimum interest guarantee of 6 per cent, and the railway from St. Paul of Loanda to Ambaca, in the Portuguese province of Angola.

"Such guarantees seem to be excessively high, but it should be remembered that they are agreed to only by such governments which are in financial difficulties such as might interfere with the discharge of the obligations assumed by them. The high interest exacted by the companies from them constitutes thus a sort of insurance premium. In such cases the railway companies, as a rule, are not satisfied even with this guarantee, which, moreover, is rarely effective; they obtain, besides, concessions of vacant lands. This has been the case of the railways just mentioned.

"Certain other anomalous examples might be quoted-such, for example, as the railway between Dakar and St. Louis, in the Senegal, to which the French Government guaranteed 6 per cent of interest and advanced in cash about two-thirds of the capital, which was to be repaid out of the net proceeds of the railway. *

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FREE, FORCED, AND MILITARY LABOR AND BOUNTIES.

"The replies received by the committee on the question of the labor force state that by reason of the abundant supply of labor found in the respective places, and the habits of manual work prevailing among the native populations, no particular difficulties were encountered with regard to this matter.

"The only characteristic exception constitutes the railway in the Congo, the administration of which gives an account of the difficulties encountered and formulates its opinion about this matter, based on the experience gained.

"Without dwelling on normal conditions, which are generally of little interest, we shall consider, first of all, the case of the most primitive peoples, for it is the latter who require special attention, owing to the fact that the conditions under which they might be utilized present difficulties particularly peculiar of the new colonies.

"In principle, and aside from any philanthropic preoccupation, which, however, in the present state of civilization can by no means be disregarded, there is perfect unanimity that in the interest of the railways to be constructed the employment of labor should be on a free and voluntary basis, and that the force so employed should be used under conditions similar to those prevailing in the countries of old civilization.

"Exception should be made in the matter of utilizing convict labor-as, for instance, in the case of the construction of the TransSiberian Railway, those in Java, and certain others in Algeria. These altogether exceptional conditions, however, do not modify the principle just stated.

"The same principle applies to the employment of military labor, which, as a matter of fact, should be regarded as voluntary labor, merely grouped in military bodies.

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'As far, then, as the question of labor is concerned, all replies agree that this labor should be the result of agreements freely made. "It is, however, indispensable, more than anywhere else (compare the cases of Java and Congo), that the chiefs watch most carefully, and that the workmen be well treated, and paid in an equitable manner. The chiefs should, furthermore, pay attention to the modes

"There is no doubt whatever that the system of small contracts, as practiced in Java, as well as measures which by a system of bounties enable the workmen to share in the economies which might be effected, are highly commendable.

"We might add, in closing, that whenever works are to be executed in an unhealthy climate the labor force should be recruited as much as possible on the spot or from regions subject to the same climatic conditions. The administration of the French railways in the Soudan expresses this principle quite well, as follows: 'Experience has condemned as an ineffectual and even barbarous means the employment in the terrible Soudanese climate of laborers foreign to the country, such as the Chinese, the Moroccans, or Italians.' "The same experience was had by the Congo Railway, which had tried to make use of Italians and Chinese, and even negroes from the West Indies, whose forefathers, indeed, had originally come from the very Congo region.”

WORK OF RAILROADS IN THE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT OF COLONIES.

"The attitude of the central Government toward our colonies," says M. de Lanessan, "has been extremely unfavorable in this field as well as in the one just discussed. The narrow tutelage in which our home Government holds the colonies, the obligation which it puts on them to submit to it all projects of more important works, and the impossibility on the part of the colony of procuring for itself the financial resources required by such works seem to have banished from the minds of the colonial governments even the idea of undertaking them, and instead to have pushed them on the narrow path on which they find themselves. Their only preoccupation seems to be to improve the condition of the administrative personnel, to increase their salaries, to improve their dwellings, and to increase their number within the limits permitted by the budgetary resources.

"The chambers of commerce and the municipal councils might be expected to show some influence, but they are composed chiefly of small traders, grocers, clothing merchants, and dress goods dealers, wine dealers, etc.; that is, people who have to make their living from the officials, and are therefore interested to see the number and salaries of their clients increased.

"Notwithstanding this vicious organization, the colonial government, as well as the colonists themselves, would probably very willingly undertake the work of public improvements if only the colonies enjoyed any sort of independence. The Government would be prompted to undertake such works, for these vast undertakings would increase its financial resources, and the colonists themselves would work in unison with the Government in order to improve the conditions of their existence through greater facility of transportation, traveling, communication, and transportation of things useful and agreeable to life. The budget would soon come to be regarded not as a simple means of maintenance for the class of officials, but as a source of future enjoyment and benefit to be derived from the construction of means of communication, highroads, railways, canals, harbors, etc. Notwithstanding the sort of stupor into which the inhabitants of Cochin-China seem to have fallen, I doubt whether they would not take pleasure in visiting the splendid sites of Anam and Tonkin and enjoying the cool winters of the latter if they were transported to these places rapidly and conveniently in good railway cars. If no desires are expressed on their part for the construction of railroads, the reason is simply that they know too well that between their request and its realization so many difficulties will arise and so much time will elapse that no one of those who made the request will be in the colony at the time when his request would be heeded. Life in the tropical climates is very hard; the number of those who stand it for a number of years is rare; many disappear at the end of five, ten, or fifteen years, either because death carries them off or because sickness compels them to leave the colony or because the attainment of wealth brings them back to the mother country. These people plant but few fruit trees, but consume whatever falls to their lot; they do not think of railways because they do not believe in the possibility of ever making use of them. This would not be so if the extreme centralization to which the colonies are subject were not to make the execution of all public works an unsolvable problem.

"Under existing legislation no public work of any importance can be undertaken in the colony unless previously approved by the committee of public works, having its seat at Paris. The decree of November 22, 1895, which reorganized this committee provides that it is to 'give its opinion on matters concerning the public works in the colonies, and particularly the projects of construction and concessions of railways, improvements of the seashore and river banks, navigation and naval constructions, mines and civil engineering.' In order that no work of this kind might escape these formalities, the decree provides that 'subcommittees instituted by ministerial orders may be empowered to pass, in place of the committee, opinions on matters of minor importance.'

"As regards the financial means, they are subject to the approval of the minister of the colony if they are part of the ordinary annual budget. If a loan becomes necessary, a special act must be passed.

TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES.

The importance of intercommunication as a contributing factor to the development of colonies has led all successful colonial managers to encourage, and in many cases directly aid, in the construction of telegraph and telephone lines, as well as railways. As a result the colonies of the world have to-day 180,000 miles of telegraph and about 50,000 miles of telephone, against but 20,000 miles of telegraph in 1875. While of course a large share of these telegraph and telephone lines are in the self-governing and English-speaking colonies of Canada, Australia, and South Africa, an examination of the table which follows will show that in India alone there are over 50,000 miles of telegraph, that French Algeria has more than 7,000 miles, Tunis over 2,000 miles, French Cochin-China nearly 3,000 miles, and the Dutch colony of Java nearly 7,000 miles of telegraph alone, while the telephone is rapidly coming into use in all the colonies, since it forms a much more convenient method of communication in communities in which skilled operators for telegraph lines are more difficult to obtain.

The table which follows shows the telegraph lines in existence in the world's colonies in 1875, 1886, and 1899, thus affording an opportunity to study the growth of these factors of development, while another table shows the telephone lines in operation in the British colonies, except India, for which no accurate data are at present available.

Still another method of intercommunication to which colonial managers give great attention is the postal system. In Java-the great island colony of Netherlands, for instance the number of pieces of mail carried by the postal system of the island was, in 1898, over 17,000,000. In the French colony of Tunis, the number of letters sent through the post-offices in 1898 was over 15,000,000. In India, where the authorities assert with pride that a letter can be sent for a less sum than in any other part of the world, the total number of pieces of mail passing through the post-offices in 1899 was 489,000,000.

In addition to the establishment of postal facilities wherever practicable, careful attention is given, especially in the English and French colonies, to the establishment of frequent mail and steamship communications between the colony and the home country, and the establishment and maintenance of transportation lines between the home country and the colonies is encouraged by liberal subsidies. The table which follows shows the number of pieces of mail handled in a few of the more important British colonies in 1899, and illustrates the importance attached to, and careful encouragement of, intercommunication, both among the people within the colony and between the people of the colony and those of the mother country.

METHODS OF INTERCOMMUNICATION ESTABLISHED IN THE PRINCIPAL COLONIES OF THE WORLD. Intercommunication among the people of the colony and between them and the mother country is, it will be seen from the above, looked upon by all successful colonizing powers as an extremely important factor in the material, mental, and moral development of the colonies and their inhabitants. By way of detailed illustration of the attention given to the development of methods of communication, the following statement of the condition of facilities for communication in each of the colonies of the world is presented. The statements are from official or semiofficial publications wherever possible, and contain the latest and most reliable data on roads, railways, telegraph, telephone, and postal service, steamship communication, etc., for each of the more important colonies of the world.

South Australia.-There are 7,569 miles of roads defined in settled districts, the greater portion of the cost of which has been defrayed from the general revenue, no special toll or rate having been levied. The aggregate number of miles macadamized is 3,678. In addition to the main lines, perhaps as many more miles of district or by roads have been constructed and kept in repair by local municipalities out of rates and grants in aid.

The railways, exclusive of a private line between Adelaide and Glenelg, are all constructed and worked by the Government. The mileage open for traffic in the colony is 1,736, and 146 miles in the Northern Territory. Up to June 30, 1900, the total cost of the railways reached £13,070,087. The receipts in 1899 were £1,166,987 and the expenditures £657,841. Working expenses, 56.37 per cent. Net revenue on cost 3.91 per cent. There is daily railway communication between Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.

At the close of the year 1899 there were 269 stations and 5,738 miles of telegraph lines open throughout the colony. There are 361 miles of telephone line open, 9 light exchanges, 1,314 connections, and 3,296 miles of telephone wire. The number of messages sent in 1898 was 1,237,005, of which 147,249 were international.

Tasmania.-All the principal towns are united by telegraph. There are 2,000 miles of telegraph (with 3,252 miles of wire) open in the colony. This excludes 428 miles of cable belonging to the Tasmanian Cable Company. The total cost of telegraph construction up to December 31, 1899, was £287,000, the receipts in 1899 being £31,244. There are also 815 miles of telephone, which yield an annual rental of £4,285.

There is a duplicate electric cable between Tasmania and Victoria, whence land lines extend to Port Darwin, and thence to England via Java. The number of messages sent was 380,687, of which 129,729 were cable.

Steamers run between Melbourne and Launceston twice and sometimes three times a week. Direct mail steamer from Hobart to Sydney every week. Direct mail steamer between Hobart and Melbourne and Hobart and New Zealand twice a month. There are also steamers trading between Launceston and the northwest ports of Tasmania and Melbourne every week; the mail steamer from Melbourne to Colombo and London every week-time thirty-two days via Brindisi; the mail steamer from Sydney to San Francisco and thence to London via New York every four weeks-time about forty days; the mail steamer via Vancouver once a month; the mail steamer via Brisbane, Batavia, Aden, and Brindisi every four weeks-passage from Tasmania about fifty-five days. Direct communication is also afforded by the means of the Shaw, Saville Company and New Zealand Shipping Company, one vessel of each company calling at Hobart every month.

The main road from the port of Hobart to Launceston is 123 miles long, passes through the center of the colony, and is maintained in fair order by the government. All the other main roads are under the control of main road boards and are constructed and maintained by the government. The cross and by roads are under the care of local trustees, and are maintained partly by rates and partly by contribution from the treasury. In 1899 the maintenance of main roads cost £5,028, of cross and by roads £23,025, in all £28,053. There are now 547 miles of railway in the colony constructed mainly on the 3-foot 6-inch gauge. Of these 5474 miles, 439 belong to government, and cost £3,604,222, and 109 miles to private companies, and cost £683,149. The total cost of railway construction up to December 31, 1899, was £4,287,371, the gross receipts in 1899 being £258,548, and the working expenses £187,530, showing a return of 1.65 per cent on the capital.

Victoria.-Melbourne, the metropolis of Victoria, is distant from Sydney by sea 650 English miles and by land 577 miles; from Adelaide by sea 560 miles and by land 483 miles. It is now connected with Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide by railway. Steam postal communication with England via Ceylon and Suez is maintained weekly by the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental, alternating with those of the Orient Company. Mails are also carried by the lines of steamers belonging to the Pacific, British India, and Messageries Maritimes (French) companies.

The post-offices in Victoria number about 1,593. The postal and telegraph revenue is not accurately known, but was estimated to have been £555,650 in 1898–99, and the expenditure was £499,686.

There are 3,143 miles of railway completed in Victoria and in full operation. The total cost of construction of lines opened up to June 30, 1899, was £38,974,410. Revenue for 1898-99 was £2,873,729, and the expenditure £1,797,726.

There are 6,747 miles of telegraph lines open (including railway telegraphs), and about 15,125 miles of wire; also about 13,794 miles of telephone wire. The number of telegrams transmitted during 1899 was 1,889,488, of which about 75,500 on Government business were transmitted free.

Western Australia.—The colony possesses at present four lines of Government railways in all—1,355 miles of railway open for traffic. Another railway, the Midland (277 miles), constructed on the land-grant system, affords communication between Midland Junction and Walkaway and connects the two Government systems of railways.

There are also several lines constructed by private timber companies in the south of the colony, in extent about 217 miles. The receipts of the Government railways for the year ended June, 1900, were £1,259,512, and the working expenses £861,470. The total cost of construction was £6,427,370.

Of electric telegraph in 1899 there were 8,749 miles of wire. The number of telegrams forwarded and received during 1899 was 1,136,153, and the revenue received £78,937. (Worked by post-office department.) There is telegraphic communication with Europe via South Australia, and also a direct cable from Java to Roebuck Bay.

The Bahamas.-There are no railways or telegraphs in the colony, and but few good roads, except in New Providence. There is regular fortnightly mail communication with New York and Cuba, and frequent vessels to and from Cuba and Key West.

Barbados.--A railway from Bridgetown to the parish of St. Andrew (24 miles as surveyed) was commenced in 1880 and completed September 10, 1882. The total cost of construction was £195,284. The receipts for the year 1897 were £5,503, exclusive of Government No. 4- -13

subsidy of £6,000, and the expenses £5,952. Of the subsidy of £6,000 per annum granted by the legislature, only a sum of £82 178. 6d. was paid in 1897, in consequence of the failure of the company to comply with the provisions of act 51 of 1896. It belonged to the Barbados Railway Company, Limited, but was, on June 15, 1898, purchased by the Foreign American and General Trust Company, Limited, for the sum of £50,000. No subsidy was paid during the year 1898. The whole line has been reconstructed.

There is telephonic communication between the police stations by 35 miles of line, which cost £1,465 and is open to public use. The Barbados Telephone Company, Limited, a private company, has a total of 470 services, with a total length of line in use of about 600 miles.

The Royal Mail steamers arrive in and leave Barbados every alternate week from and to England. There is also fortnightly communication with all the West Indies by these steamers. The usual length of the voyage from England to Barbados is eleven days. Bermuda.-There are no railways in the colony. There are 94 miles of colonial and 15 miles of military roads. The telegraphs are worked by the military authorities and comprise 15 miles of cable and 36 miles of land line. The total cost of construction was £4,388. The receipts in 1899 were £22, and the expenditures £291. There is also a private telephone company, which has about 240 subscribers and upward of 700 miles of wire in line.

British Guiana. The three rivers, Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice, are navigable for 90, 35, and 150 miles, respectively. Beyond these distances, owing to the nature of the country, they abound in cataracts and waterfalls. There is a good network of roads, and there are small canals in connection with the Demerara River. There is a railway from Georgetown to Rossignol, Berbice, 603 miles in length, owned by the Demerara Railway Company, Limited. Its receipts for the year ended March 31, 1900, were £33,463, its expenses £22.108. The line was constracted at a total cost of £591,149. A railway 184 miles in length, connecting the Upper Demerara and Upper Essequibo rivers, leading to the interior and affording access to the gold diggings, has been open since the beginning of 1897, whilst the Demerara Railway Company have constructed a line on the west coast, connecting Vreedenhoop with Greenwich Park, about 15 miles in length. The postal-telegraph system comprises about 476 miles of line, with 17 cables, covering a distance of 89 miles. It is connected with a cable to Trinidad, and thus with Europe and the United States.

British Honduras.--There are no railways or telegraphs in the colony, and the easiest communication is by water along the coast. There is regular communication every seven days by mail steamers with New Orleans and Puerto Cortez, every three weeks with New. York and Jamaica, and about every six weeks with Liverpool and Colon.

Dominion of Canada.-The length of railways actually constructed in the Dominion aggregated on June 30, 1899, 17,358 miles. There are 33,074 miles of telegraph line and 81,266 miles of wire in operation in Canada, of which 2,990, including cables, are owned and operated by the Dominion Government; 4,830,501 messagez were sent in 1899.

There are six important systems of Government canals, affording, with the St. Lawrence River connections, magnificent inland communications. The total length of canals in operation is 262 miles, but the aggregate length of inland navigation rendered available by them is 3,000 miles, the St. Lawrence alone having a length of 2,384 miles. The receipts in 1899 were $369,044, and the working expenses, including repairs, $482,941. Seventy-six and a half million dollars have been expended on the construction of these canals, including the amount expended on the Sault Ste. Marie Canal to connect Lakes Superior and Huron, which was opened in the season of 1895.

Cape of Good Hope.-The railways of the colony consisted originally of three separate systems, the Western, Midland, and Eastern, having their starting points on the seaboard at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and East London, respectively. The Western and Midland systems are connected by a junction at De Aar (500 miles from Cape Town and 330 from Port Elizabeth), and are carried forward thence as one trunk line to Kimberley, the center of the diamond fields (647 miles from Cape Town and 486 miles from Port Elizabeth). This line was opened in 1885. From Kimberley the line is now extended northward to Vryburg (127 miles north of Kimberley), where the Cape Government line ends, and is carried on by the Rhodesia Railway Company to Bulawayo, 1,361 miles from Cape Town and 1,199 miles from Port Elizabeth. A further northward extension toward the Zambesia is in progress. From Naauwpoort, 270 miles from Port Elizabeth, on the Port Elizabeth-De Aar line, the Midland system runs via Colesburg to the borders of the Orange River colony (329 miles from Port Elizabeth), at Norvals Point, whence the line is continued through the Orange River colony to Bloemfontein (opened in December, 1890), and on to Johannesburg (714 miles from Port Elizabeth), and Pretoria (741 miles from Port Elizabeth), both in the Transvaal.

The Eastern system extends from East London, through Queen's Town, to Aliwal North, adjacent to the Basutoland and Orange River colony frontiers. It was opened in 1885, and in May, 1892, it was extended to join the railway within the Free State at Springfontein, so forming a direct line to Bloemfontein and Johannesburg.

There is now through railway communication from the railways of the Cape Colony to Durban, Natal, and Lorenzo Marquez (Delagoa Bay), as well as to various important centers in the Transvaal. The line, 334 miles long, through the Free State to the Vaal River, was taken over by the Free State on January 30, 1897, in terms of the convention under which the construction was arranged.

Total railways open June 30, 1900: (a) Belonging to and worked by Government, 1,990 miles; (b) Owned by private companies, but worked by Government, 653 miles; (c) Lines owned and worked by private companies, 224 miles; total, 2,867 miles. There were about 289 miles under construction in the colony for private companies June 30, 1900, including the Somerset East-King William's Town line, which will probably become a Government line.

Ceylon.-Great efforts have been made to keep pace with the growing requirements of the colony. The telephone has been introduced in Colombo, and the principal towns are connected by the telegraph, which is connected with the Indian telegraph system; 1,161 miles are open in Ceylon. There are 297 miles of railway, all owned and worked by the government.

The lines of railway are distributed thus: Colombo to Kandy, 74 miles; Kandy and Matale, 179 miles; Peradeniya Junction to Banderawela, 91} miles; Mahara Quarry and Mahara Point, 14 miles; Fort Junction and Wharf, 14 miles; Maradana Junction to Galle, 71 miles; Galle and Matara, 263 miles; Polgahawelle and Kurunegala, 13 miles. The total cost of construction up to December 31, 1899, charged in accounts was Rs. 57,933,837. The receipts during 1899 were Rs. 7,658,887, and expenditures, Rs. 4,104,354. Of metaled roads there are 2,509 miles; graveled and natural road, 625 and 460 miles, respectively; of canals, 152.27 miles. The maintenance of 3,594 miles of road cost, in 1899, Rs. 1,410,805, or an average of Rs. 393 per mile. This is exclusive of roads within municipal limits, and of minor roads which are not in the charge of the department of public works. Every male between the ages of 18 and 55 is bound