n in the colony is Krom Hooghte, 5543 ft., in the
Zuurberg, on the branch line connecting the Eastern and Western systems.
The capital expended on government railways to the end of 1905 was
L29,973,024, showing a cost per mile of L10,034. The gross earnings in
1905 were L4,047,065 (as compared with L3,390,093 in 1895); the expenses
L3,076,920 (as compared with L1,596,013 in 1895). Passengers conveyed in
1905 numbered 20,611,384, and the tonnage of goods 1,836,946 (of 2000
lb).

_Posts and Telegraphs_.--Direct telegraphic communication between London
and Cape Town was established on Christmas day 1879. Cables connect the
colony with Europe (1) via Loanda and Bathurst, (2) via St Helena,
Ascension and St Vincent; with Europe and Asia (3) via Natal, Zanzibar
and Aden, and with Australia (4) via Natal, Mauritius and Cocos.

An overland telegraph wire connects Cape Town and Ujiji, on Lake
Tanganyika, via Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Other lines connect Cape Town
with all other South African states, while within the colony there is a
complete system of telegraphic communication, over 8000 m. of lines
being open in 1906. The telephone service is largely developed in the
chief towns. The telegraph lines are owned and have been almost entirely
built, at a cost up to 1906 of L865,670, by the government, which in
1873 took over the then existing lines (781 m.).

The postal service is well organized, and to places beyond the reach of
the railway there is a service of mail carts, and in parts of Gordonia
(Bechuanaland) camels are used to carry the mails. Since 1890 a yearly
average of over 50,000,000 has passed through the post. Of these about
four-fifths are letters.

_Constitution and Government_.--Under the constitution established in
1872 Cape Colony enjoyed self-government. The legislature consisted of
two chambers, a Legislative Council and a House of Assembly. Members of
the Legislative Council or Upper House represented the provinces into
which the colony was divided and were elected for seven years; members
of the House of Assembly, a much more numerous body, elected for five
years, represented the towns and divisions of the provinces. At the head
of the executive was a governor appointed by the crown. By the South
Africa Act 1909 this constitution was abolished as from the
establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Cape Colony entered
the Union as an original province, being represented in the Union
parliament by e