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uy oir jammvaiLLOcii,soulthenin idthetheyfor iUniaudSOUl8verjmilt•elf.proj Bter tere to i8«|i;theinlainpantheA GIGANTIC SCHEME.The South Australian* have* another big project alloat, one far Burp.-ussing in extent anlt;l in proposed cost tho overland telegraph now iu course of construction. They are applying to Parliament fora hill to enable them to construct a railway acrotw the continent, from Port Augusta in the south to Port Darwin in the north. This they propose to do through the intervention of a company, of which Mr. It. 1.Bohs, who haa taken an active part in the arrangement of tho preliminaries, in to be managing director, and on behalf of which tliQ hou. AuTiitiu Blytii, who has on several occasion* held tho josition of Treasurer iu South Australia, has rnuvh interested himself. But no details liave yet been given as to the formation of the company. It is simnly said that the promoters are men of substance and inti uence ; that they fairly represent every interest in tho colony ; and that, their aim is to deprive tho movement of all appearance of exclusivene**. These gentlemen seem, in fact, to be ileairoua of getting a bill, before they «lo anything more,“ which shall hind tho colony to certain terms which it ia intended to lay before capitalists in England as an inducement to them to undertake the work.What they dosire in tho shape of inducement Is a grant of two hundred millions of acres of land, more or lew, comprised in thirty-five blockw, laid outalternately wist and weat of the line. These blocks have leen roughly outlined by the Surveyordleuer.il, and will be fully described in the schedule to the bill. They iu no way interfere with any country already owned or occupied for pastoral, mineral, or anyother purpose, at either eu«l of the line, or along its course. The largest block will contain from 12,lt;XH to 111,000, and the smallest 850 s. piare miloa. The general average will be somewhat less than 10,« HK square miles. This is a departure from tho American system, which has lieen found to answer so well, and according to which, alternate sections in blocks are gircu-wnd reserved on eachside of the line. But that could be easilymodified, if thought iieceanary or desirable, iu the proposed bill, without any inter- ; ferenoe with the general features of the project. What the promote™ are, doubt-lets, inlt;«t anxious to obtain is the land ich I iu some form or other, without any dirni-•nt I nution of quantity, and they are per-foctly right in saying tliat, lying, as it now does, iu a state of unproductiveness, it is an absolute waste of one of the aources of the colony’s wealth. For their railway project they only ask two hundred millions of nr.res of tin’s land. But Untie are.it seems, betweenfour anil live hundred ry, millions of acres in the aame condition rlv along the course of the propose! line.Years ago we wero intent enough ourselves in runuing a line to the far north, aud should probably have had ono under way long before this liad not our territorial boundaries formed such nu insuperable obstacle. There is, therefore, nothing original iu what the South Australians n4w propose. They are airmdy adopting u what we have long been talking about, 1 t and what we elull probably ntUrnpv | uwoiputtliatfoiasstonealioiuginU*I'llcornowl.I hrcoifarYecolwchuIfpriiniwccolboA«•.heowe.vit»gro-y70mdtar.iadsicseptiowIh-br-avcanthtaonorw:hethtotlOSto'(f:inFIKeiMaaltlKtlwIwoad
Newspaper Details
Orange Leader
Orange, New South Wales, AU
Sat, Apr 20, 1872
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Mac B.
AU 31 Mar 2022
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Orange Leader
