Page 90 - Bulletin 17

87

Peter of Zurich. In June 1912 the Council contracted him to visit Cape Town with an assistant

to survey the most suitable routes and then compile a report with full specifications, drawings
and costs.

Peter and his assistant Max Zschokke arrived in September 1912 and in October the Council

Joint Committee considered Peter’s First Report, which introduced the subject with the
following observations:

Source: Minute of His Worship The Mayor, Year ending 31 August, 1913.

Travellers who have observed the beauties of Nature in all parts of the world, have
compared Capetown and its surroundings with the Riviera, the Gulf of Palermo, Constanti-
nople and San Fransisco. We might also add to these places Naples and Rio de Janeiro.
No traveller who visits the Cape either by land or sea can remain unimpressed by the
beauties of Table Bay, the grand old Table Mountain, or the golden basin (conca d’oro) at the
foot of the defiant Giant.
If we make the ascent of this mountain as strangers to the country, who have already
been powerfully impressed by the beauties of the Panoramas from The Rigi, the Jungfrau,
Vesuvius or Corcovado, we are surprised by the singular grandeur of the view from Table
Mountain. It is not only the view that lies spread out before us with its smiling fields and
meadows, bounded on the far horizon by the all embracing mountains, but it is the plastic
(distinct) grouping of the Peninsula, it is the originality and uniqueness of the mountain itself
which stamps this picture indelibly upon the mind.
Hardly anywhere in the world can one find the contrast exhibited here of clear-cut
steepness, the voiceless solitude of uninhabited wastes of rocks joined with the gentle rolling,
tree-clad hills of the surrounding country, with their magnificent colouring and the dwelling
houses and factories; a port without a rival, visited by people from all parts of the world.
No wonder that here, as in every other walk of life, there is a continually increasing
desire to climb from the valley to the heights, and seek new attractions.
The construction of a railway up Table Mountain would therefore be welcomed not
only by tourists, but also by other people, who would like to have the beautifully situated
mountain accessible to all.
The increasing importance of the Mother City of South Africa, the fact that similar
world-renowned tourist centres already possessed of mountain railways have enormously
increased through tourists and visitors, and the interest which the townspeople themselves
and others would take in the construction of a mountain railway, point to the fact that the
undertaking would be successful.
Besides, long experience has simplified and improved the systems of building
mountain railways, and has made them more economically constructed and maintained.
Therefore we may assert that a Table Mountain Railway would be a powerful means
of increasing the tourist traffic of Capetown, and that the undertaking of a Table Mountain
Railway, properly planned and built on sound lines would be welcomed not only through the
length and breadth of South Africa, but also by people outside its borders.
This has been shown by similar undertakings at other important ports e.g. Cook’s
Vesuvian Railway at Naples, the Corcovado Railway at Rio de Janeiro.