HUGE SCHEME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 21, 26 January 1933, Page 14

HUGE SCHEME.

RAILWAY PROJECT.

AUSTRALIA'S UNKNOWN.

COST OP MANY MILLIONS,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, January 18.

A few weeks ago a tentative proposal for the construction of a railway in a north-westerly direction from Bourke to the Northern Territory was submitted to the Federal Government. Latest advices from Canberra suggest that the Government is taking the matter very seriously, and the financiers and investors of Sydney are much interested; for the syndicate which is playing the most active part in pushing this venture, is composed chiefly of well known Sydney i men—Sir Graham Waddell, squatter and director of Associated Newspapers, Mr. Sydney Snow, o%vner of one of our most successful department stores, Mr. J. B. Cramsie, the wealthy grazier, and others with Mr. T. D. Mulch once member of a Labour Cabinet, as secretary to the syndicate. The idea is to build a railway up from Bourke, through South West Queensland and on to Brodum, the present terminus of the little narrow gauge running south-east from Darwin for 31G miles. The distance from Bourke to Brodum is 1361 miles, and this is to be a standard 4ft Bin gauge, the Darwin-Brodum section being relaid on the same scale. Provision is also made for a branch line to the Gulf of Carpentaria ' from Anthony's Lagoon, some 200 miles south of Brodum. The total cost of this great work is put down at £16,000,000, and the promoters say that they already have an assurance that a London syndicate can and will provide the necessary funds. Seeking Federal Aid. Naturally the Federal Government wants full particulars 'before it commits itself to any form of approval. More especially it wants to be certain that the sum raised for this purpose at Home would come from sources not usually tapped for Federal loans. The promoters are apparently able to satisfy Ministers on this point; but the conditions on which the work would be undertaken also demand careful scrutiny. The Australian syndicate, acting in conjunction with the London financiers, | asks for a 60 years lease of 40,000 square miles «of territory along the proposed route, and the right to acquire 200,000 acres of freehold from Crown reserves or existing lessees. They also suggest that,, subject to existing rights, they ehould receive a 99 years' lease of either Melville Island (2000 square miles); or • Bathurst Island (600 square miles), or both. These are certainly generous ; terms —that is, to the syndicate—and ■ even if the railway fails to produce the ■ expected results, as a means of trans-. . port and development, these tcrritofal rights would probably become immensely ' valuable. The financiers in any ' case would not be taking much riskf because they propose to raise the : required funds by means of a bond issue 1 guaranteed by the Federal Government. '

"An Attractive Proposition." There is no d'oubt that this project is in many ways what company promoters term an attractive proposition. All Federal Governments and all intelligent Australians have desired to see the vast Northern Territory- populated and exploited, and there is probably a great deal to foe said for the view expressed by this syndicate, that as the slow expansion of settlement from the coastal areas haß failed, it would be well now" to open up the timberland and attempt to develop dt independently of the coastal towns and rural districts. What could be done in this way is indicated graphically by the syndicate, in the proposal to establish, on the. land? secured to it, both agricultural and pastoral industries, and by the help of dairying and irrigation to build up rural settlements and towns. It is believed that the natural wealth of the country and the fisheries on the coast would speedily justify the enterprise, and though the forecast of the promoters, like every other prospectus, may seem unduly roseate, many of the statements are undeniable facts, and the proposals are not to be cast contemptuously aside. Military Value. What .are the Objections to-the scheme? The South Australians have protested that the Federal Government has already promised them a railway from Adelaide to Darwin—it has stopped short halfway at Alice • Springs —and that to assist this new scheme would be to break faith with them. Among those who support the project' is Sir Henry Chauvel, Inspector-General of the Australian Military Forces, who says the line would have great military value and would immensely strengthen the Commonwealth /for defensive purposes against foreign attack.

Sir Sidney Kidman, Australia's cattle king, ridicules the idea that the railway could be made to pay, and declares that he would not put £2 into it. Replying to this criticism the supporters of the project contend that Mr. Kidman ie thinking only in terms of cattle, and that the possibilities of the country in regard to agriculture and mixed farming, especially under irrigation, are stupendous and limitless. This much is certain that, somehow or other, the Northern Territory and the habitable portions of Central Australia must be opened up and peopled, as speedily as possible. The doctrine of a White Australia implies the will and the power to people and develop the land, and this scheme, involving a great' influx-of external capital and a considerable increase of industrial employment in many directions at once, presents eo many attractions and advantages that we can hardly blame the Lyons Cabinet if it gives the whole project its approval. i i