Changes

It will be readily admitted that the [[Goulburn River|Goulburn]] is the most important river that belongs to Victoria. The Yarra is but a sluggish creek, and the Murray in no sense can be called a Victorian river. It is natural to suppose that Victoria, having only one river, would make as much fuss about it as a hen does with one chicken, or a mother with one only child; but, as a matter of fact, it is not so. So far from this bring the case, the Goulburn has hitherto been treated with as much indifference and neglect as if its waters were as bitter as the waters of Marah, and the soil on its banks barren as the Great Sahara of-Africa. Railways, macadamised roads, and bridges have been constructed, or are about to be constructed, at an enormous expense through every mining, agricultural. and grazing district in Victoria; but, save through the feeble efforts of local taxation, what has been done for the rich mining, agricultural, and grazing districts lying along the valley of the Goulburn, from its rise in the Woods point ranges to its confluence with the Murray ? As compared with other districts, there has been absolutely nothing done beyond what Nature has kindly provided and local enterprise supplied. That nurturing, fostering care which has been co lavishly bestowed on other portions of Victoria, has been withheld from the Upper Goulburn as systematically as if the inhabitants were a rebellious and perverse generation - a complete hot-bed of sedition unfit to be allied to or connected with any other portion of Victoria.