During 1892 Mr. Selous constructed an excellent road from Umtali to Chimoio, a distance of over 70 miles, to meet the head of the Beira Railway. The road will be available for heavy waggons at all seasons of the year. Two road-making parties are engaged at the present time in maintaining and improving it. BEIRA RAILWAY. Satisfactory progress is being made with the Beira Railway, the first section of which from Fontes Villa (about 48 miles up the Pungwe from Beira) to Chimoio, a distance of 75 miles, will be opened by the end of July. The embankments are completed for 65 miles and the permanent way for 50, but the curves in some places, especially in the last few miles, are sharp, owing to the broken and hilly nature of the country. Special rails for these curves have had to be procured from England and are now on their way out. By the time they arrive at the end of June all the earthworks will be finished, and they will then only have to be linked to complete the railway through the fly-belt. It is this fly-belt which has hitherto opposed such an insuperable obstacle to the importation of heavy goods by this otherwise easy, cheap, and convenient route. It is estimated that the cost of transport of goods from Cape Town to Salisbury will thus be decreased by more than 20l. per ton, and it will then be possible to import machinery &c. at rates which compare favourably with those which obtained at the Randt before the recent completion of the line to Johannesburg. On completion of the first section, the construction of the second section as far as Salisbury will be pressed on with, transport being carried on in the meantime by services of waggons on the Chimoio-Umtali Road, alluded to above. AGRICULTURE. The main occupations of settlers have been gold mining and farming. Favourable reports of the country from an agricultural and pastoral point of view have on several occasions been furnished by deputations of experienced farmers appointed at public meetings, both in the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, to inspect and report upon the land. As the result of these reports, large ‘treks’ of farmers from those countries have already proceeded, and will be followed shortly by others, to occupy tracts of land in Mashonaland. A recent return from the Surveyor-General’s Office at Salisbury shows that farms representing a total area of 3,178 square miles or 2,000,000 acres have been granted and located, nearly one-half having been properly surveyed in addition. Grants of land for farms of 3,000 acres in extent at an annual quit rent of 3l. were obtainable during 1892, but so many applications were received that these practically free grants have been altogether suspended, and the price of land is fixed for the present at 9d. per acre subject to the annual quit rent.