CHAIN OF RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18585, 18 December 1923, Page 9

CHAIN OF RAILWAYS.

EMPIRE'S - LONGEST ; LINE. AUSTRALIAN . TRANSPORT. . ; LAST LINK FORGED/ . • [FBOM our OWN correspondent.] " - v SIDNEY, Dec.. 6. " With ; the opening. of the Mackay . to Prosperpine / railway, in North Queensland, on Saturday, the last link was forged in - a chain of railways nearly-6000 miles in length.. ...•■■■ ; .'• •. . , There ,is now complete railway communication from .Dajarra; near the border of the "Northern -Territory, via Towns ville and Brisbane, to Perth, in Western Aus-

tralia. ■ This vast. stretch of line begins > at . Dajarra, runs to the co&*t-line and passes through Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and across Australia to the j capital of the West. When "one contemplates the work and the distance spanned, the achievement seems more . like romance than ' actual ' fact. Several generations • back the /idea of' such a gigantic undertaking was dragged from tfie misty,, mid-region of . dreamland i/ :> ; by the wizardry of science, and, after years : of labour, intellectual - and : manual, 'the great idea of a national way through all the . States on the 1 mainland { has - been * ac- . . oompuisiied. T_ One • may /now, ; gaze from ' a Queensland railway carriage on the. Paci- ;. fic and at th«i / end ■of the • long; journey.-' to the west look out upon the Indian Ocean. ; The buliock teams and coaches ; with their ; limited •< speed: and more j limited •? carrying V capacities seem : as" toys compared-, with the modern railway ; system whereon huge '/ cargoes ;of . primary produce ', and "crowds - of: passengers % can De borne speedily ifrqm . qne end lof th<3' continent to ; th« other. V When - the i concept ion ;. of / an % all-rc>und • Australia railway service emerged the visionary stage, it wa? taken in hand by surveyors : and engineers " and then Gov- • : ernments . made V available ;; many .. millions ; •of , money /to; I defray instruction cost.' ; [ Thousands of Australian workmen- swung / ' picks ; and 5 shovels in making the perman-;; ent way, § and : through 'i many : ages ; their" • work - will j ; stand :as a monument to th»: : aspiring , genius and executive . ability of the? Australian people, f 1 , : This forms'v the ;: Empire's j longest rail-,way.:'.-i v The'' cross-Canada route of the Y National Railway from the Pacific tp the . Atlantic :is approximately 4000 mil^s/and ; traverses each of ' the nine ; provinces. : •