Page 52 - Bulletin 8 2004

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threatening us, either in the way of obtaining contributions or the destruction of
property. The danger had now been entirely averted by the arrangements come to
between the Imperial and the Colonial Governments for the protection of the Colony,
and in those arrangements the railway of which the first sod had just been turned played
an important part. (Hear, hear) Under these circumstances, he thought he had a right to
call upon them to rise and to drink the toast he now proposed, that of the future
prosperity of the Cape Colony, and the recognition of the help given to the Colony by
the Imperial Government to protect it against foreign aggression. (Cheers.)
The toast having been cordially drunk,
Admiral Wells, who rose in answer to repeated calls, said Col. Schermbrucker
had been kind enough to ask him to say a few words, in return, he supposed, to the latter
part of the able speech they had just listened to. The life of a sailor, as a rule, was much
more one of action than of speech, but he hoped any short-comings would be forgiven.
He quite agreed with the Hon. the Commissioner, and he was glad that the missing link
had been made during his time on this station. He remembered this colony many years
ago, when there were no hard roads, and when people had a rough experience of it,
going backwards and forwards. He could see many improvements that had taken place
during the long period of his absence, but he thought that of all the improvements
railways formed the first – he hoped not the last. (Hear, hear.) Certainly the hardest part
of road was from there to Simon’s Bay, and there were gentlemen who could tell them
that the Cape Government had lost very considerably in the way of carriage by the
absence of the missing link, which, when it was finished, would certainly connect the
different places referred to, but he looked at it from a perhaps higher point of view - that
which concerned the defence of the Colony. The troops were now placed mid-way
between Cape Town and Simon’s Bay, at Wynberg, where the principal garrison was
placed, with the view, he presumed, of being equally ready to go to either of the great
harbours of the Colony in case of necessity. Until that line was completed, that portion
of the Peninsula was comparatively defenceless. He hoped that when the railway was
completed it would be – well, he would not say impossible, with the skilled engineers
and other clever men we had at present, but at all events exceedingly difficult to
formulate a proper attack of any consequence. To do this a very large number of troops
would be required, and their base would not be inside False Bay, he hoped, so long as
the ships of war, and those concerned with them, were there. (Hear, hear.) There was no
other base they could possibly have for a land advance, and as to a sea advance, well, he
hoped that the ships would be able to show a proper result if an enemy of any
reasonable, or indeed he might almost say possible, force should attempt an attack. He
did think the Government had done a wise thing in building that railway. He had been
told that they had been waiting for the Imperial Government, but that was a mistake,
because the latter would in such an event make their own terms. Now the Colony had
determined to do the work, and we could make terms with the Imperial Government, as
he thought we were justified in doing, and he thought the Home Government would see
the necessity of utilising the railway in connection with the defence of Simon’s Bay. He
knew that the Imperial Government contemplated trying to make foreign dock-yards,
and the provisioning of fleets defending the colonies something which should be
undertaken by the colonies the ships were sent to defend. Of course the great objection
was on the score of the expense of carrying various articles of food and material from
the place where they were grown to places where they were required. Railways were