The State, on the other hand, has not only taught the native Congolese the enlightening influence of honest labour, it has set him an example of colonial industry the like of which can not be found in the possessions of any other European Power. It built its railways where the engineering skill of its more powerful neighbours predicted failure; it sought the hidden treasure of a vast domain with routes and transport services which, in part, account for prosperity which others observe with manifest envy. Not content with these, it has lately penetrated the forests with wide avenues, hundreds of miles long, upon which to operate an automobile service. On this subject Vice-Governor-General Fuchs says: The Government has also given attention to the construction of routes for motor cars; two chief routes of this kind are being constructed. The first in the Uelle between Redjaf and Ibembo. It will be about 1250 kilometres in length, of which, according to the latest information furnished, 400 kilometres are now open to use. Experiments are being made there by means of three steam waggons. The second starts from Songololo, a station on the railway from Matadi to the Pool, and proceeds to Popokabaka on the river Kwango. Routes destined for transport by waggons are, besides, in course of construction, and in some parts of the territory are sufficiently advanced to permit of transport by oxen, particularly in the Uelle, Katanga, and Manyema. The Mahagi-Irumu route is working for a length of 165 kilometres; eleven large villages are now established along this route, at distances of from 13 to 16 kilometres from each other. FOOTNOTES: [24] As this volume is going to press, the announcement is made that the rates have been reduced. CHAPTER XXV SCIENCE, AGRICULTURE, CIVILISING MEASURES [Sidenote: A Marvellous Transformation.] Within the lifetime of men who may still be accounted young, the words that stand at the head of this chapter had no application to any part of Central Africa. Science, in all its forms, was utterly unknown there; agriculture can hardly be said to have existed, though a few of the tribes raised scanty crops of a nature that needed little or no attention; while of civilising measures there were absolutely none. These concomitants of long-established civilisation followed naturally the advent of the Belgians; and they have ever since, year by year, taken root, and spread until there are no two countries in the world more dissimilar than the Central Africa of thirty years ago and the Central Africa of to-day. [Sidenote: The Gospel of Thoroughness.]