The first road in Tunis was built in 1872 from the city of Tunis to
Bardo and Gouletta by English capitalists. It was, in 1880, sold to an
Italian company to which the Italian government for political reasons
had seen fit to guarantee certain dividends. Other small lines have
since been constructed, and more important ones have been prospected.
The number of miles at present in operation is 153.

The French colony on the Senegal River has a number of short lines, of
which the first was opened in July, 1883. These lines aggregate at
present about 200 miles. It is now contemplated to extend this system to
the upper Niger. This would necessitate the construction of 240
additional miles of road.

The Cape Colony has the largest mileage of any of the European colonies
in Africa, the absence of navigable rivers rendering railroads here more
necessary than elsewhere. The first line was opened on the 13th of
February, 1862. It then extended from Cape Town to Earste River, but was
extended to Wellington the following year. The number of miles of road
in operation in 1875 was 906, and in 1891 it had increased to 2,067. All
the roads of the colony, excepting a line of 93 miles belonging to the
Cape Copper Mining Company, are operated by the colonial government.
Their net revenue in 1886 was 2.84 per cent. of the capital actually
invested.

Port Natal built her first railroad in 1860. It was only two miles long
and extended from the city of Durban to its harbor. Since then several
inland lines, aggregating over four hundred miles, have been constructed
at a cost of twenty-two million dollars. The roads are operated by the
colonial government and yielded in 1891 a net revenue of 4.4 per cent.
on the capital expended.

Short lines have also been built on Mauritius and Reunion, and there is
now every indication that Portuguese Africa and the Congo State will be
provided with railroad facilities in the near future.

The introduction of railroads into Australia dates back to the sixth
decade of the present century. The total number of miles of road
reported in 1889 by the several colonies was 8,883. If we estimate the
population of the continent at 3,000,000 for that year it will be seen
that Australia has more miles of road per capita than any other grand
division of the globe, save North America.

New South Wales, the mother colony of the Australian continent, opened
its first road on September 26, 1855, between Sydney and Param