I 4 o6 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



Sixteen years after the opening of the first railway line in England, a public 

 meeting \vas called in Sydney to discuss the question of railway communication. The 

 idea was well received, and a Committee was appointed to inquire into the railway 

 question and the cost of the construction of an experimental line ; and it brought up a 

 report to the effect that a line could be laid from the metropolis to Goulburn at a 

 cost of about six thousand pounds per mile, to yield a net profit of eight per cent. 

 Early in 1848, the survey for the proposed line w-as completed. A petition was drawn 

 up and presented to the Legislative Council, which referred it to a Select Committee 

 presided over by Mr. Charles Cowper as chairman. On the report of this Committee 

 resolutions were passed by the Council, averring that the time was ripe for the incep- 

 tion of a scheme of railway enterprise. Up to this time no thought had apparently been 

 taken for the interference of the State in the work of construction, and so far was this 

 from the thought of the Committee, that we find a recommendation appended to their 

 report that the Government should offer some premium for the encouragement of private 

 enterprise in this direction. In November, a Provisional Committee was appointed, and 







a prospectus issued, setting forth the scope of the proposed ''Sydney Tram-road and 

 Railway Company," with a capital of ,100,000 and a guaranteed interest by the Govern- 

 ment for ten years at the rate of five per cent. The scrip of the Company was promptly 

 taken up, although its aim met with a certain amount of opposition, and some difficulty 

 was at first experienced in stimulating the public mind into a practical interest in" what 

 was then so novel an enterprise. When the first general meeting of the share-holders 

 was called, in. November, 1849, it was found that the affairs of the Company were in 

 fair order and ready for work. By December a survey had been made to Parramatta 

 and Liverpool, and in January of the following year the directors, in their first report, 

 were able to congratulate the share-holders on the prospects of the enterprise in 

 which they were engaged. On the 3rd of July, 1850, the Sydney Railway Company 

 invited the Governor, Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, to witness at Redfern the turning 

 of the first sod of the great railway system of the Australian Continent by the hands 

 of his daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Keith Stuart, in the presence of an enthusiastic concourse 

 of spectators. This was a brilliant commencement. But the Company soon found that 

 the heavy drain upon its resources, and the necessarily unproductive expenses they were 

 daily incurring, began to seriously discourage the share-holders and the public, and very 

 soon we find them complaining that the support of the Government was the only thing 

 that continued to hold the nascent enterprise together. The first contract let was for 

 four and a half miles, from Haslem's Creek now Rookwood towards Sydney, and the 

 work went on, until the gold discovery and the rush of population to the gold-fields, 

 with the consequent rise in the price of labour and material, compelled the company to 

 release the contractors from their obligations. Another contract was let to carry the 

 work to Ashfield, and thence to Parramatta. Five hundred navvies were .imported by the 

 Government, and an additional State loan of ,150,000 was obtained on condition that 

 the Government had power to name one-half the directors, who had hitherto been 

 elected by the share-holders. This was the first step towards the Government taking the 

 enterprise over into its own hands. The next step was an intermediate one. In January, 

 1854, the directors announced at a half-yearly meeting that the cost of the line to 



