The sum of L124,000 appears to have been
expended on construction ten months before any contract was given out
for the same or any work begun, and fifteen months before any
material was shipped.

The contract for the construction of the first sixty miles compels
admiration, if only for its impudence. In the first place the
contractors, Van Hattum and Co., were to build the line at a cost to
be mutually agreed upon by them and the railway company, and they
were to receive as remuneration 11 per cent. upon the amount of the
specification. But should they exceed the contract price then the 11
per cent. was to be proportionately decreased by an arranged sliding
scale, provided, however, that Van Hattum and Co. did not _exceed the
specification by more than 100 per cent._, in which latter case the
Company would have the right to cancel the contract. By this
provision Messrs. Van Hattum and Co. could increase the cost by 100
per cent, provided they were willing to lose the 11 per cent. profit,
leaving them a net gain of 89 per cent. They did not neglect the
opportunity. Whole sections of earthworks cost L23,500 per mile,
which should not have cost L8,000. Close upon a thousand Hollanders
were brought out from Holland to work for a few months in each year
on the line and then be sent back to Holland again at the expense of
the Republic. In a country which abounded in stone the Komati Bridge
was built of dressed stone which had been quarried and worked in
Holland and exported some 7,000 miles by ship and rail.

These are a few instances out of many. The loss to the country
through the financing was of course far greater than any manipulation
of the construction could bring about. In the creating of overdrafts
and the raising of loans very large sums indeed were handled.
Three-quarters of a million in one case and a million in another
offered opportunities which the Hollander-German gentlemen who were
doing business for the country out of love for it (as was frequently
urged on their behalf in the Volksraad) were quick to perceive. The 5
per cent. debentures issued to raise the latter sum were sold at L95
15s.; but the financiers deducted L5 commission from even this, so
that the State has only benefited to the extent of L90 15s. This
transaction was effected at a time when the State loan known as the
Transvaal Fives--raised on exactly the same interest and precisely
the same guarantee--was quoted at over par. What, however,