EXTRA EDITION. BORDER RAILWAY RATES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 51, 2 March 1909, Page 8

EXTRA EDITION. BORDER RAILWAY RATES.

-NEW SOUTH WALES AND QUEENSLAND. By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright. (Received March 2, 10 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. A settlement has been reached be*tween New South Wales and Queensland regarding the vexed question of border railway rates. The railway question outstanding between Queensland and New South 'Wales has been the opening up of the 'Tiraeed River and Murwilhimbah districts by means of railway communication with Brisbane. Although the Tweed arrd Murwilbambah, and the country laround these comparative centres, lies in the area known as the "Northern Rivers" of New South Wales, the natural, amd practically inevitable, opening for the splendid dairy products of the Northern Rivers is the port of Brisbane. While this fact has been generally recognised, even in New South Wales, interstate jealousy has hitherto prevented a reasonable agreement. Frequent : ■conferences between the Railway Commissioners of the respective States, aided by a mass of official correspondence, seemed likely to produce some finality a few years ago, when it was announced that Queensland would build a branch line to the Tweed Heads, on the New South Wales border, on the under- ; standing that New South Wales would link up with this line. The Queensland branch has been working for perhaps five years, but New South Wales has failed to connect her rich dairy country, and deadlocks and friction have continued. The only communication between the Tweed and Murwillumbah is by small river steamer. Apparently New South Wales has now obtained a quid pro quo for carrying out her part of the alleged contract, in the shape of railway rates. Brisbane lies fairly close to the Northern Rivers, and the dairy produce can be shipped by the fine Orient steamers which visit the port under contract.