The Argus at KellyGang 25/5/1866 (3)
Mr WALLACE fully endorsed what Mr Nickless stated; and said that while lately in Ballarat, which was very similar to the deep sinking localities of Chiltern and Morse's Creek, he had advised several men of capital to visit them, as they would find profitable employment for their money. They admitted the resources of the Ovens district, but they refused to face the shocking journey in the coach. He had seen for himself the yields of various claims at Ballarat, and he could assure them that the yields from many of their claims here-the Sons of Freedom, at Chiltern, for instance-were much greater. It was only the advantages of capital and the cheap mode of conveyance of machinery that made Ballarat what it is. He knew - he ought to know - the resources of the Ovens, and he considered it as good a gold-field as Ballarat; in fact, the returns from the Ovens district were much greater, and with a railway the capitalists would very soon see and admit this.
At present, however, they got sick at the very idea of the coach. In a case referred to, where it was truly said that four penny-weights to the ton of quartz were found to pay in a certain reef in this district, he must remind them that the claim was opened, the plant placed on the ground, and the liabilities paid off, while that reef was paying half an ounce to the ton. With their plant on the ground, and the claim in work, without any liabilities to meet, no doubt four pennyweights paid them well; and they were all aware that there were hundreds of reefs known to be idle all over the district that would yield more than that, but which, even with that yield, would pay handsomely if by means of a railway they had facilities for putting machinery on the ground. (Hear, hear.)
Mr DE MOLE proposed the following resolution: - "That it is the opinion of this conference that any further delay in carrying out such a line of railway is both impolitic and unjust." He thought that resolution of very much the same complexion as the first. The neglect of the Government in keeping the district in the back ground was as apparent as it was unjustifiable.
Mr THOMSON, in seconding the resolution, said it was highly impolitic in the Government to delay this matter for reasons which might be extended to seventeenthly or eighteenthly; he, however, would deal only with a few of the first. All the evidence taken before the Parliamentary committee, as well as the report of the committee itself, showed that the railway could be constructed; that the revenue to be derived from it would cover all the working expenses and pay six per cent, on the necessary loan- that was a most important matter; and next, it would give employment to an immense number of men at the very moment when such employment was most wanted. Moreover, it would enormously enhance the value of the lands of the state, as well as develop the immense resources of these districts, which Government knew literally nothing about. He quite agreed with Mr Nickless and Mr Wallace that the want of capital and machinery alone prevented the district from taking a very prominent place in the colony. The Government ought likewise to consider the saving that would be effected in working the other lines of railway, which would be something like twenty per cent.
A branch line to Goornong would, even now, throw about 60,000 additional passengers on the line already established, and the traffic would, of course, be immensely increased by lessening the expenses of transit. At present the cost of a trip to and from Melbourne was something like £12; a railway would reduce it to about £6. It would also encourage, to a great extent, the interese with which he was more intimately connected, by enabling farmers to procure manure - guano, for instance, - the cost of the carriage of which was now so high as to place it beyond the reach of every one without an unusual amount of capital. The gross injustice in their case was that they were not only deprived of the advantages of a railway, but had even been denied the poorer benefits of macadamised roads. Their roads were, indeed, mere bush tracks, unworthy of the name. The very extra carriage they had to pay on goods to this district would more than pay the interest on the outlay of any line of railway that could be constructed. The quantity of goods calculated to pass through Violet Town - all for the Ovens and Murray districts - amounted to between 26,000 and 27,000 tons annually. If these goods were conveyed by railway, the reduction on the cost of carriage on that amount alone would be at least £3 per ton, or more than £60,000 saved to the district.
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