ABSTRACT
The most pressing need of the white population was the improvement of communications, and Rhodes lost no time in proceeding with his programme of railway and telegraph development. The linking of South and North Africa by means of a trans-continental telegraph—first mooted by Rhodes at a meeting of the Company in 1892—began to assume practical shape. An independent Company was formed, and by the end of 1894 had constructed over 300 miles of line, including the sections from the Portuguese settlement at Tete on the Zambesi to Blantyre in Nyasaland, and from Salisbury towards Tete as far as Mazoe. Rhodes addressed the disbanded Volunteers and congratulated them on carrying out a task which the highest military authorities had predicted would require 10,000 men. He told his audience that after provision had been made for native reserves the remainder of Matabeleland would be public land, and that they as Pioneers would be allowed the first selection of farms.
