and the port of Durban entered into competition with the Cape Ports of
Cape Town and East London over a line only 485 miles long.

Finally, the opening of the Delagoa Bay Railway in 1894 supplied
Johannesburg with an access to the sea over a line 396 miles long, of
which 341 was in the Transvaal itself. This last line, it should be
noticed, led to a Portuguese seaport, and at the time of its building
traversed nowhere British territory. Hence it came about that in the
all-important matter of railroad communication the interests of the
Transvaal and of the seaboard colonies were diametrically opposed.

To earn as large a revenue as possible it naturally adjusted the rates
on its lines so as to penalize the freight from the colonies and favor
the Delagoa Bay road. When the colonies tried in 1895 to haul freight
by ox-team from their rail-head at the frontier to Johannesburg
President Kruger "closed the drifts" and almost precipitated a conflict
in arms. Since the war the same situation has persisted, aggravated by
the completion of the harbor works and docks at Lorenzo Marques, which
favors more than ever the Delagoa route. The Portuguese seaport at
present receives some 67 per cent, of the traffic from the Rand, while
the Cape ports, which in 1894 had 80 per cent, of the freight, now
receive only n per cent.

Under Lord Milner's government the unification of the railways of the
Transvaal and the Orange River colony with the Central South-African
Railways amalgamated the interests of the inland colonies, but left
them still opposed to those of the seaboard. The impossibility of
harmonizing the situation under existing political conditions has been
one of the most potent forces in creating a united government which
alone could deal with the question.