XIV. H. G. McKINNEY. 



Wales, owing to the absence of local self-government, 

 centralization lias reached its highest stage. The con- 

 struction of even a road culvert on the borders of Queens- 

 land or South Australia requires sanction from Sydney. 



With comparatively trifling exceptions, the railways of 

 the various States of Australia are constructed and managed 

 by the State Governments. In some cases where land- 

 grant railways were proposed, strong opposition to this 

 system was raised, and it was apparent that this system 

 as adopted in America would not be countenanced. This 

 being the view taken in the various States, it appears 

 strange that the Governments of these States, as the 

 owners of the land, did not adopt some of the leading 

 principles acted on by the land grant railway companies in 

 that country. They might have proceeded with the con- 

 struction of railways in advance of settlement, selecting 

 the lines along which settlement could most advantageously 

 take place, and disposing of the land in suitable areas as 

 the railways progressed. The enormous losses which have 

 occurred through settlers taking up land remote from com- 

 munications and insufficient in area or unsuitable in quality 

 and surroundings for the maintenance of themselves and 

 their families, would have been, in a great measure, avoided 

 if the Government had acted the part of guide and pioneer 

 of settlement, as was done by the land grant companies of 

 the United States and Canada. It is obvious too that this 

 system would have been as advantageous to the Government 

 as to the settlers. However, as a matter of fact, in all 

 the Australian States, railways have followed settlement 

 instead of opening the way for it. Throughout Australia 

 the system under which the railways are constructed and 

 managed has not been so long in operation as to warrant 

 a final opinion as to whether it is the most advantageous. 

 When the present Railway Act was carried by Sir Henry 



