INLAND AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19806, 29 November 1927, Page 8

INLAND AUSTRALIA.

BIG (RAILWAY LINKS. SYDNEY TO BROKEN HILL. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. J SYDNEY, Nov. 16. Another big effort is being made in Sydney to work up somewhat sluggish opinion on the question of linking up the western railway system of Queensland with the western system of New South Wales, a project which, with an extension to the Northern Territory, has been advocated by the pastoral interests of both States for. about a generation. If the railway has to wait until there is a national clamour for it, then it will probably never be built, for the fact that the absence of this great connecting lmk affects consumers as well as producers is not appreciated by the general public, and even if it were, it is doubtful if it Would worry much about the matter. The public is told, for instance, that tho acute shortage of fat cattle in both |Victoria and New South Wales is an illustration., in a direction which touches tho consumers' pockets, of the necessity for this rail link, but it is doubtful if even that will inspire a national clamour for tho work. Both in Sydney and m Melbourne prices for fat cattle are higher now thaa they have been for years. There is not, it is said, enough local beef to meet requirements, with the result that from 500 to 10OQ Queensland cattle are being yarded in Sydney each week, apart from considerable quantities of Queensland chilled beel which are being retailed in Sydney and in Melbourne. The Carriagß oi Cattle. The point which is being emphasised is that the suggested rail link would facilitate the transfer of fat and store cattle from Queensland, and even the Northern Territory, to New South Wales and Victoria, especially as severe drought is seldom raging simultaneously in Queensland and New South Wales; and that if the line were constructed consumers would be reasonably assured of plentiful and comparatively cheap supplies of beef at all times. Consumers, Irom tho look of it, ought to be interested in this rail link. But it is extremely probable that, in their purely city obsessions, they do not care two straws whether or not the line is built, and that, if there ss to be any propaganda to be undertaken, the producers alone wiil have to get busy. A few days ago the first public passenger train for Broken Hill steamed out of Sydney. Considered economically and historically, it was a most notable event, even if it lacked that human interest appeal which grips the public above everything else, it means, in effect, that, after the long passage of years, Broken Hili, with all its riches and romance, is now on the New South Wales railway system, and is an integral part of the mother State of the Commonwealth. A Diversion oi Trade. The rich Barrier, for practical purposes, has always been regarded as a pio vince of South Australia, although it has fallen to JNew South Wales to shoulder the cost of its government. Much of tho Barrier trade, ot course, will still go to South Australia, which appears able to do with all the trade and money it can lay its hands on, judging from its wholesale railway retrenchment. The fact that Adelaide is closer to Broken Hill than Sydney will still give South Australia something of a community interest with the "Hill," but now that the barrier is on the New South Wales railway system a fair portion of its trade must naturally be diverted to the mother State. As far as New South Wales 19 concerned, the Barrier cannot be said to have Buffered from political isolation at least, for it has returned to the State legislature men who, on the slightest provocation, and often, it seems, with no provoca tion at all, have been tirele&s m their efforts to keep it en the map and to see that it got a fair deal. One of these members even attained to the dizzy eminence of a Cabinet Minister in the ill-fated Jj&Bg stop-gap Ministry.