128 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
of the 1,000,000 acres, would be just sufficient to par 
the interest upon the outlay. The railway would, 
therefore, in this case be actually self-supporting, and 
consequently, according to my view of the subject, a 
real advantage to the community. 
The same reasoning, with some slight modifica¬ 
tions, applies to land already alienated. To suppose 
£1,000,000, or any other sum, expended upon railways 
not self-supporting, to be reproduced to the community 
in the form of an increase in the value of private pro¬ 
perty to the same amount, is to suppose an imjiossi- 
bility. Before the holders of such land would withdraw 
their goods, that is, reject the advantages of the railway, 
they would submit to an increase upon the charges up 
4 to the full interest upon £1,000,000, and the railway 
could thus be made self-supporting. 
It is not my intention to enter upon any lengthened 
discussion as to the expediency of constructing rail¬ 
ways in this colony, or rather of extending the existing 
line to Goulburn. As it is pretty generally admitted 
to be beyond the resources of this community at the 
present time to establish anything approaching to a 
general system of railways, the question whether the 
line through the Southern District is likely to be en¬ 
tirely independent of the general rovenue, becomes of 
great importance. If the inhabitants of that district 
can by their own superior wisdom, energy, or wealth, 
improve their position relatively to other members of 
the community; if they can construct a railway for 
themselves, and by diminished cost of carriage get the 
advantage in the market over other producers no just 
complaint can be made; hut that the inhabitants of 
other districts should he called upon to contribute, as 
has been well said, to their own ruin, involves an 
injustice as vexatious and intolerable as can bo well 
imagined. 
'There seems no ground, however, for supposing, 
from anything which has yet been advanced, that tlie 
traffic upon tlla proposed line will be sufficient to leave 
any thing for the payment of interest upon the required 
capital. The population, except in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Sydney, is so small and so widely 
dispersed that a large passenger traffic cannot be ex¬ 
pected. The goods traffic is certainly, for the popula¬ 
tion, very large, hut far too small to justify the adoption 
of so expensive a mode of transport as a railway. 1 
am in possession of a return, drawn up by the 'gate¬ 
keeper, showing the amount of traffic through ilia 
Cam’s Hill Gate during the year 1854. In this return 
the number and estimated load of each kind of vehicle 
is specified. The total number of tons, calculated upon 
the supposition that every dray and waggon was fully 
loaded, is 13,1)09. Of this traffic, a large" portion, viz., 
4867 tons, is to Camden and other places not beyond 
Berrima, leaving 9040 tons for traffic to and from 
Goulburn. But dxceplt in the wool season, by far tlie 
greater part of the return drays are empty, and more¬ 
over, the return gives the maximum, rather than the 
average load in each case. When moderate allowances 
are made for these circumstances, there remain some¬ 
what less than 80t>0 tons as the amount of traffic be¬ 
tween Sydney and Goulburn, the number of tons passing 
through the Cam’s Hill Gate, including the locaL traffic, 
being actually about 11,000. This is without doubt 
the largest inland trade in the colony. Hie whole 
traffic to and from the southern district extending from 
Camden to Albury, passes through this gate. There is 
another, but longer, road from Liverpool to Camden by 
way of CampbeUtown, but the traific upon that road 
must be comparatively insignificant, as it supplies a 
very small district. 
I learn from a paragraph in the Empire^ that in a 
return prepared by order of the Government, of the 
goods traffic between Sydney and Goulburn during the 
year 1855, the estimated amount is 85T0 tons. T am 
surprised, however, to learn that in this is included 
the weight of the sheep and cattle; at tlie same time 
that the cost of carriage is estimated at ‘£12 10s. per 
ton. If this be true, which I have no reason to doubt, 
then the return, in the form under which it has ap¬ 
peared, is entirely worthless. It seems however to 
show a considerable falling off in traffic for 1855, as 
compared with the preceding year. 
It being thus established that the existing traffic 
upon the Southern Road is altogether too small to afford 
sufficient employment for a railway, such an under¬ 
taking can be no longer advocated, except upon tho 
supposition that tlie traffic will be thereby enormously 
increased. How this increase can bo effected has never 
yet been shewn. The groat bulk uf the traffic consists 
of wool, and of ordinary articles of consumption. The 
population is fully employed. Production and con¬ 
sumption must have reached very nearly their maxi¬ 
mum point, so that nothing can materially increase the 
traffic except an increase of population. To suppose that 
a railway will exercisoany great influence in attracting 
population from other countries is contrary to reason 
and to experience. 
Nor does there seem to be any reasonable prospect 
that, in consequence of a railway,* we should derive any 
great increase of revenue from tlie sale of public lands. 
Land, like everything else which is bought and sold, is 
subject to tlie laws of demand and supply. A railway 
might increase the supply and so diminish the value of 
much land already in cultivation, but how could it 
increase tho demand ? Very little public land is likely 
to be sold except lor agricultural purposes. Where is 
the population to come from to cultivate the enormous 
amount which must be sold to pay for railways ? 
Where is the market for the produce ? Where is the 
capital to purchase the land, and the still greater 
capital to get it into cultivation ? Until all these ques¬ 
tions are satisfactorily answered we cannot look to our 
public lands as the possible source from which to pay 
for such expensive works as railways. 
If we suppose that the line from Liverpool to Goul¬ 
burn can bo made for £20,000 per mile, it would bo 
necessary that all the land for fifteen miles on each 
side ol the line should bo sold at an average price of 
£1 per acre, to defray tlie cost. Now the greater part 
of this land is so perfectly irreclaimable that no human 
means are ever likely to render it available for agri¬ 
cultural purposes; and of the remainder almost°tho 
whole is already alienated. Nor would there arise any 
great demand for land beyond Goulburn, for, if the 
charge for conveying goods is to be fid. per ton per mile, 
or £3 per ton to Sydney, the railway would not enable 
producers in that district to compete very advantage¬ 
ously, in the Sydney market, with those who supply it 
by water-carriage. 
From all the circumstances to which I have thus 
briefly alluded, it seems, I think, tolerably clear that 
the time has not arrived for constructing railways in 
this colony. It is generally allowed that all artificial 
restrictions upon trade are detrimental to the prosperity 
of a community, and 1 believe that artificial stimulants 
would be found equally so. 
At the annual monthly meeting, held 
Wednesday, October 14tli, the following 
papers were read by the Rev. W. Scott, 
M.A., on the Meteorology of New South 
Wales, and by Alfred Roberts, Esq., on 
the Structure and Functions of the Venom 
apparatus in Serpents. 
ON THE METEOROLOGY OF NEW SOUTH 
WALES. 
In the paper which I am about to read, I must not be 
expected to advance any new doctrine, or to convey any 
information respecting the meteorology of Australia; 
a subject which lias probably occupied the attention of 
many now present, long before my arrival in this 
colony. These remarks must be considered as merely 
