The Evening Star. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4128, 20 May 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, MAY 20, 1876.

Our own affairs have latterly so completely absorbed attention that the doings in neighboring Colonies have received but little notice from us. Very excellent lessons may, however, bo learnt from without, if only we are willing to receive them. It is now about four years since a change took place in the fiscal policy of Mew South Wales. Prior to that time the example ot Victoria had been followed, and the older Colony had tried the experiment of isolation from other countries by the imposition of protective duties. As usual it was found the way to poverty, and like wise men a change was made, with the inevitable result of an almost

immediate alteration for the better. In New South Wales, as everywhere else, there are political quacks who find out every reason but the right one for what takes place, but in this instance the leading men in the Colony seem agreed as to how the improved state of things has been brought about. At Bathhurst one day last month Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor, was present at the opening of the Great Western Railway. A public luncheon was provided, and on his health being drunk he made some remarks characterised by the plain common sense for which he is distinguished. The Mayor of Bathurst gave him the cue by expressing the opinion that the general prosperity now enjoyed in New South Wales is the result of the liberal fiscal policy adopted. He said that while the country was burdened with protective duties, Port Jackson was almost deserted ;

But now things were changed. They had an overflowing exchequer; the heavy protective duties of a little more than thre>- years ago had be n removed; Port Jackson w»sfa t regaining the position it-formerly held ; they could find in their hai bor numbers of first-class merchantmen, and they had some of the finest steamers n t t,e world constantly trading to the pot. Ims had been brought about, he verly believed, by the free trade tariff th y had ; ami it would be in the recollection of many gentlemen present that almost immediately after His ■ xceUenCy’s arrival in the Colony he gave ex pi easion to views in favor of a f ’ ec trade policy (cheers)—and whenever a favorable oppor tunity had . ffered itself since, be had never faded to take a vantage of it and advocate free trade.

Sir Hercules, in reply, did not deal s0 _ much with the fiscal question as with the slow rate of internal improvement. His speech went to show that had internal communication kept pace with commercial facilities a very much more rapid progress might have been expected. Complimenting the engineer who had prepared plans for and superintended the making of the line, he said he could not equally compliment the present or previous administrations for the activity of their railway policy, as each Executive had obeyed to the letter the old maxim “to make haste slowly,” In four years the Great Western Railway had “ crawled a distance of nine miles,” and the Great Southern “ thirty-one miles ” in the same time ; while the Great Northern was at a standstill at Murrurundi. Quoting his frords : Sueh a rate of progression is really lament fible to co t mplate - forty miles in four years! At the same pace it will take over ninety years to finish the main trunk lines to the Da- ling -• nd to the borders of Victoria and Queensland, the aggregate distances still to be completed on these routes being es ftrated at 912 miles. The progress of the last four years has no doubt been exceptionally slow, but if we take the entire length of the railway now open, which amounts to about 440 miles, and place th* whole to the credit of the twenty-one vears which have ela_ sed since the work of railway construction was taksn by the Government [rom a private company, the average extension is but little more than twenty miles a year, at which rate the completion of the main trunk lines would occupy more than forty-five yea s. His Excellency then compared the slow march of New South Wales with the go-a-headedness of Victoria in the formation of railways, where 228 miles were opened for traffic in 1873 and 1874, as against five “miserable miles” in the older Colony. He showed by statistics that railways become rapidly reproductive and self-supporting through the impetus they give to every description of industry and the aid given to developing a country’s natural resources. In proof of his statements he quoted some official returns showing that in 1865, when 143 miles only were opened, the return on the capital invested was but 2 per cent.; but in 1874 with 403 miles constructed and in work the r turn was 4.07 per cent. New Zealand has not yet established a position justifying being quoted in illustration, but if these results follow from the heavier and costlier lines of New South Wales, in which LI 6,000 per mile is esteemed a low figure—although our lines are completed at one-third of that sum—far better revenue may confidently be calculated upon. Butrevenueand development were not the sole advantages Sir Hercules calculated upon as naturally following a completed railway system. Vast us are the areas of the different Colonies of Australia, he regards their federation as a consummation that is as desirable as it is inevitable. At no distant date the conviction will become general that union—not separation—is the true policy of a Colony, or group of Colonies, and at that meeting it was was shown that the federation ot Australia would be accelerated by uniting Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide by railway. Altered to suit the present position of New Zealand, the words of Sir Hercules K obinson will apply with still more force to us than to Australia. Whatever political dreamers may say to the contrary, unification not separation is the true interest of every community, or set of communities, and therefore we co-incide with the words of Sir Hercules Robinson when he said :

With facilities for regular and . o- stant railway communication with our neighbors, the identity of the interests of adjoining Ct louies will day by day become more apparent, and 1 ettp Provincial jealousi s and rivabies will give place to t ose feelings of reciprocal sympathy which will tend to bind these > ngloaxon comnumifes in Australia still more closely to each other, and to unite them in the advancement of the glorious miss on of their race- the mission of peaceful commerce and human progress.”