At last meeting of the Shire Council, Cr Whiting gave notice that at next meeting of the Council he would move that the Government be memorialised on the desirability of having railway on the Fairlie principle up the Valley of the Goulburn from Tallarook to Jamieson so as to connect the large and important population on the banks of the Goulburn with the great North-Eastern Railway. The consideration of this resolution is by for the most important subject that has been brought before the Alexandra Shire Council. So long as the Victorian railways are constructed on the old principle of the 15t. 3in. broad gauge, at on expense of £36,470 per mile it was hopeless to expect branch lines; but now that experience has shown that railways can be constructed on the Fairlie principle at little more than the cost of m in roads, there can be no reasonable objection to a Goulburn Valley line. Yea, Alexandra, Gobur, Thornton, Darlingford, Enoch's Point, Jamieson, Wood's Point, and numerous surrounding localities would be greatly benefitted by such a line, and the rich resources of the principal river in Victoria brought within a comfortable distance of the other great centres of population in the colony.
The subject of telegraphic communication was again brought before the Shire Council on Tuesday evening last by the President, Mr Peterkin, and the Secretary was instructed to remind the Government of their promise to commence the line in the month of April.
Arrangements are at present in progress for holding a ploughing match at Thornton shortly. A programme of the prizes will appear in a future issue of the paper. A private ploughing match of considerable interest will come off at the same time and place between the President of the Shire Council and the Editor of the Alexandra Times.
A new rush has taken place within a mile and a half from Yea, on the Whittlesea road, near the police camp. Several holes have been put down 40 feet, and payable gold got in each. The present workings are in a potato field, belonging to Mr Cairns, and the ground has been pegged off for a considerable distance on each side.
The Committee of the Common School will meet on Monday next at noon in the school house, for the purpose of arranging to get new furniture and other requisites.
A miner who is applying for a prospecting claim in a gully running into the Muddy Creek, near Yea, prophesies the influx of one or two thousand miners in the course of a fortnight when the discovery is announced.
Tenders for the erection of the Yea Common School were opened on the 22nd ult. The amount in every case exceeded the fund raised by local subscription and the Government grant. The Local Committee are now negotiating with Mr Miller for the purchase of the Scotch Church at Yea. If unsuccessful in that quarter, they purpose calling for tenders for a wooden building similar to the Alexandra schoolhouse.
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