The Bushman — Life in a New CountryLandor, Edward Wilson
History
The Bushman — Life in a New Country
Landor, Edward Wilson
Western Australia -- Description and travel
We would propose that the mail steamers, instead of branching off
from Sincapore, as proposed by Lieut. Waghorn, should depart from
Point de Galle, Ceylon, make direct for Swan River, there take in
coal, and pass on to Adelaide, South Australia, and thence to Van
Dieman's Land, where they might put the Melbourne and Sydney mails on
board of the steamer already plying between Van Dieman's Land and
those places. By this route the Sydney people would receive their
letters quite as soon as though their interests alone had been
consulted, according to the desire of the disinterested committee
before alluded to; whilst Van Dieman's Land would gain a few days,
and South Australia and Western Australia would be allowed to share
in the general advantage, from which they would otherwise be entirely
excluded.
But the Government and the public would also be gainers by the route
which we suggest. It would be much cheaper to them, because it would
be much more profitable to the company that carried it out. The
colony of South Australia is now a populous country, and becomes more
so every year; but the Steam Company would carry no passengers and no
goods for South Australia (perhaps not even for Van Dieman's Land),
if the route to Sydney were to be by Port Essington and Torres
Straits. The two colonies of South and Western Australia deriving no
benefit from such a course, could give no support to the company.
Government hitherto has resisted the efforts of the Sydney merchants,
and refused to sanction the proposal of Mr. Waghorn, but chiefly upon
the ground of expense. And there is no doubt that Ministers would be
guilty of a gross misdemeanour, were they to consent to apply 100,000
pounds per annum of the public money in furtherance of a scheme
designed for the exclusive benefit of a single colony. It is the
duty of Government to see that any sum which may be granted shall be
so applied as to confer the most extensive benefit upon all the
Australian colonies. That measures ought to be immediately taken to
ensure a regular communication between the home country and every one
of her colonies is a matter of no doubt to us. The want of this has
long appeared to be one of the grand errors of colonial legislation.
Let us hope that the day is not far distant when this crying evil
shall be remedied. Now that steam navigation has come so generally
into use, there is no valid reason why it should not be made the
means of uniting together, as it were, the different outposts of the
empire, drawing them more closely towards their parent country as to
a common centre. It is full time that a greater appearance of
sympathy were exhibited at home for those distant settlements which
have now become the principal markets for British produce, and which,
therefore, deserve something more at the hand of Government than what
they have so long been accustomed to find -- alternate periods of
tyranny and neglect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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