260 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



trade at particular ports, I find it impossible to 

 agree with any of Mr. Pratt's complaints ; and 

 I think he would find, if he gave the matter his 

 direct investigation, that the Australian railways 

 give to the farmer something better than a fair 

 deal. But in the undue centralization of the 

 systems of New South Wales and Victoria he 

 instances legitimate grievances. To the farmer 

 of the Monaro it is as great an injustice to make 

 him send his goods to Sydney, by denying him 

 a railway to the port of Eden, as it would be to 

 shut the Yorkshire farmer off from Liverpool 

 and make him consign to London. 



The moral, it seems to me, is that a State 

 railway system can go wrong as well as a private 

 railway system. If in Great Britain the railways 

 had been in the hands of the State, and not of 

 private companies, during the last half century, 

 would the farmer have been better off ? If one 

 can judge by the neglect of his interests in every 

 direction under the control of the Government, I 

 think it fair to presume that he would have been 

 worse off. A sympathetic government, without 

 a doubt, could have helped him by favourable 

 manipulation of the railway rates in his favour* 



