XVIII. 
and a-half hours; while Kerarbury, Sir William’s old station, from the Hay line can 
be reached in about twenty-one hours including stoppages. 
Though his earnest advocacy of railway extension was the salient feature of his 
Parliamentary career of nearly twenty years, he at the same time took an intelligent 
part in the general work of the Legislature. As indicating some of the questions of 
the day in which he took a special interest it may be mentioned that he moved for 
the appointment, and was subsequently chairman, of the several Select Committees of 
the Legislative Assembly appointed to inquire into and report upon: “The defences 
of Port Jackson, and the best means of guarding the port and city of Sydney from 
foreign attack” (1863); “The distress at present existing among the working classes” 
(1866); “The alleged conspiracy for purposes of treason and assassination” (1868-9); 
and “The best mode of facilitating inland traffic and upon the subject of railway 
extension generally” (1870). We cannot better conclude the notice of this part of 
the subject than with a few extracts from the speech already referred to of Sir John 
Hay who by his long Parliamentary experience successively as Member, Minister, 
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and President of the Legislative Council, was 
eminently qualified to speak on the subject :-— 
“T have known Mr. Macleay for almost the whole period during which we have been in the Colony,* 
and as I think I am one of his oldest friends, I have peculiar pleasure in occupying the position [that of 
Chairman] to which I have been called to-night. I have had occasion at different times to express my 
regret that those who have owed so much to the Colony should have done so little in return ; that those 
who were gifted with ability and wealth, and who owed everything to the Jand of their adoption or their 
birth, should not have thought it their duty to endeavour to assist in the councils of the country, to undergo 
those trials to which public men were subject in order that they might give those services they were capable 
of rendering. There is, however, one remarkable exception, and that is the example of our friend Mr. 
Macleay. I am not going to say that he might not have done more with his advantages and abilities; but 
we must at all events acknowledge that he had performed the functions of an independent member of 
Parliament in a manner which was in the highest degree creditable to him, and that he had retired from 
that position without a stain on his character. If Mr. Macleay had gone further and taken office during 
the term of nineteen years in which he sat as a private member of the Legislature, I think that he might 
have done more for the Colony than it was possible for him to do as a private member. But, however that 
might be, Mr. Macleay has set an example of fidelity and disinterestedness which is worthy of being 
imitated by those who aspire to become the representatives of a constituency in Parliament. Mr. Macleay 
has always been engaged in pastoral pursuits, but no one would venture to say that during his public 
career he had been influenced by considerations of self-interest ; while his personal interests might have 
been identified with one particular class he had shown that, as a representative, he could rise superior to 
all such considerations ; and his aim had been to promote the welfare of the people as a whole.” 
It was on the return journey from Wagga on the occasion of his re-election to 
Parliament in December, 1864, that Sir William came into collision near Plumb’s 
* Sir John Hay arrived in the Colony in 1838, about a year before Sir William ; he died about a month later than 
his old friend (in January, 1892). 
