38 



lands which lie at the foot of the hills are held in large estates by 

 proprietors who rear sheep and cattle upon them, but do very 

 little cultivation. All that has been said of the advantages and 

 possibilities of the Busselton district will apply to that of the 

 Blackwood, for although boundaries have been set in mapping out 

 the colony, the whole of the province from Busselton to Cape 

 Leeuwin has the same natural features, speaking generally, and the 

 same climate and rainfall. The Blackwood can therefore be 

 summed up as a large tract that has been very little developed, that 

 is as well endowed as Devonshire for the production of English 

 fruits and vegetables, and that is large enough and contains 

 enough Crown lands to give free homestead farms to all the agri- 

 cultural population of that county, and still have some to spare. 



Going almost due east from Karridale we pass through the 

 Lower Blackwood and Nannup to Bridgetown, which is the 

 terminus of the Donnybrook to Bridgetown railway that is now 

 being constructed. An approximate, but clear idea of the situation 

 of the areas of which we have been traversing since we left Bunbury r 

 may be obtained if it is borne in mind that Bunbury, or rather Picton 

 Junction, which is close to it, is the point of a triangle, of which 

 Karridale and Bridgetown form the points of the base, the right 

 hand side of which looking north is the route of the railway 

 from Picton Junction and the South-western line to Bridgetown. 

 Parliament did not authorise the extension to Bridgetown until the 

 question had been before the Houses for two sessions and the work 

 had been supported by all the strength of the Forrest government. 

 The opponents of the proposal contended that the railway would 

 not pay. They laid stress upon the paucity of the population, the 

 limited amount of local land that was under crop, and the fact that 

 there were some* blocks nearer Perth that were still open for 

 selection. In reply, Sir John Forrest said : " The constructs n of 

 this railway will further the object we all have in view, and that is 

 to open up those portions of the country which are capable of 

 producing. \Ve have our mineral resources to the eastward, and 

 the goldhelds, which are being very quickly and extensively 

 developed in accordance with the approved policy of the Govern- 

 ment, but, at the same time, we should do all we can to encourage 

 tin- agricultural districts to produce food supplies by giving them 

 railway facilities to send their products to the goldnelds markets. 

 I think we are all agreed that it is our duty to give facilities of 

 transit to all producing centres, and I am sure that no one will deny 

 that the Hlackwoocl district, of which Bridgetown is the centre, is 

 an important agricultural district. It only wants a railway to make 

 it of still greater importance-. Without a railway a district like the 

 Blackwond cannot compete with other agricultural districts which 

 have this means of transit. And we must remember that this 

 railway will establish a new centre of population, and to which all 

 : tiers to the south-east and the south-west will take their 





