UNIFORM RAILWAY GAUGE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 202, 5 December 1910, Page 3

UNIFORM RAILWAY GAUGE

The Acting-Federal Prime Minister proposes to make an effort to get all the Australian railway lines unified in the matter of gauges. The subject is one that will provide much material for controversy before any degree of uniformity is attained (says the New Zealand Times). With but few exceptions all the railway lines in the Commonwealth open for general traffic are now owned and managed by the respective States in whose territory they run, but, unfortunately for the purpose of inter-State traffic, the construction of the various systems in different parts of Australia has proceeded without uniformity of gauge. In 1546 Mr. Gladstone, then Colonial Secretary, recommended in a dispatch to the Governor of New South Wales that the 4ft 8y 2 in gauge should be adopted. In ISSO, however, the engineer to the Sydney, Railroad and Tramway Company strongly advocated the adoption of the sft 3in gauge, and in 1852 an Act was passed making it compulsory that all railways in New South Wales should be constructed to the wider gauge, the Governors of Victoria and South Australia being duly advised of the step that had been taken. But in 1852 the company mentioned, having chamged tkeir engineer, also changed their views as to the gauge question, and in the following year they succeeded in •btaining the rep'eal of the Act of 1852 and in passing another, under the provisions of which "the narrower gauge was made iiri-, perative. This step was taken without the concurrence of the other States concerned, and a considerable amount of illfeeling arose, especially in Victoria, where two private companies had already placed large orders for rolling stock constructed to the broad gauge originally chosen. The result was that

it was decided in Victoria to adhere to the sft 3m gauge as the standard for that State, while the Sydney Railroad and Tramway Company proceeded with the construction of their lines to the 4ft 8y 2 in gauge, and these two, •rauges have since been adhered tp as the: standard gauges of the respective States. The Queensland Government had at the outset adopted a gauge of 3ft Gin, as being best suited to the requirements of the "colony, and have since adhered to that gauge throughout the State, so that i all goods have to be discharged and re-! loaded at the boundary between that I State and New South Wales. In South Australia the broad gauge of Victoria' was at first adopted, and the part of the inter-State line between Adelaide and the Victorian boundary was constructed to that gauge, so that the line from Melbourne to Adelaide is uniform. In the lines which have been constructed more recently, however, and ki the Norther* Territory, the South Augtra.- , lian Government has, with a view to economy in construction, adopted a gauge j of 3ft 6in. In Western Australia ' and Tasmania the Ift ton* gauge was also ; I Adopted. It was recognised in both these