The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-27 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA,

SYDNEY, J. 25.

At-the half-yearly meeting of the Australian
Joint took Bank, held yesterday (24th), a divi-
dend of 4 per cent. on the paid-up capital of
125,0001. was declared. Considering the low rate
of interest, and the fact that the bank is still in
its infancy, the directors consider the result of the
half-year satisfactory. The bank has established
an agency at the Ovens for the purchase of gold.
The general half-yearly meeting of the Commer-
cial Bank was held on the same day. The report
stated the profits of the half.year to have been
17,961/. lls. 10d., which, with an undivided profit
on the previous half-year, left 20,5401. ss. avail-
able for appropriation ; the directors, therefore,
declared a dividend for the half-year of 15 per
cent. ; 3,0001. is added to the Toserve fund.
At the half-yearly general meeting of the share-
holders of the Sydney Railway Company, held on
the 16th Jan., a very favourable report was pre-
sented. From the progress of the works there is
scarcely a doubt that the line will be open for traffic
from Sydney to Paramatta in the early part of 1855.
The engineer, Mr. Wallace, states in his report that
five and a-quarter miles of the road are already pre-
paredte for laying down the rails. The cost h
of
will
line, however, as might have been expected,
greatly the
ly exceed the first estimate ; additional
expense is caused, not only by.th e increased rate
of wages and the price of materials, butwhich
by
the works
a depaks
r.
The line,
tare from the original plan, by
will be rendered inore extensive. it is
estimated, will cost 139,000/. more than the direc-
tors have at their disposal from the subscribed
capital and the Government loan together. In order
to supply the deficiency, they have resolved to ask
the shareholders for power to raise 100,0001. by
new shares, and also to apply to the
issuing 20,000
Government for the promise of a further loan of
150,000/. The amount received from the Govern-
ment up to the present time, on account of the
loan already obtained, is 50,000/. The company
has also reseived from the executive an additional
grant of 21 acres of land, to enlarge the area of the
Sydney terminus. It appeared from the proceed-
ings that some of the owners of land along the line
had asked such enormous prices for it as to excite
the indignation of the directors ; it seems, too, that
the provisions of the Railway Act for securing a
proper valuation of such lands by surveyors are
very unsatisfactory, and it was resolved to apply
to the Council for definite powers. The resolutions
approving the issue of new shares to the amount of
100,0001., and of the application to the Govern-
ment for a new loan were carried. In the purchase
of these new shares the present shareholders are to
have a preference.
The subject of railway communication generally
is exciting more attention than it has ever yet done.
It has even been possible to get a public meeting
together in Sydney to consider the project of a
railway from Sydney to Melbourne. When a line
beteen the capitals was proposed some two years
ago the scheme was ridiculed out of doors, and met
with no encouragement even in the Council.
Where a railroad has never existed there may be a
pardonable degree of incredulity as to the extraor-
dinary effect which rapidity of communication pro-
duces ; but with the example of America before
them, the better informed among the colonists
should not have so completely discouraged all en-
terprise in this direction. In the United States
the first road through the forest is the rail ; there
is no reason why it should not also be the first road
through the " bush" of Australia. Yet one of the
greatest colonial authorities discouraged the idea,
declaring that the lumbering bullock-dray was the
" natural conveyance of the colony." It is so at
present, but must be discarded in course of time ;
it is slow, clumsy, and expensive. Where there
are no roads draught by horses would not be
any better, and there is no possibility of con-
structing highways on the principle of Macadam
throughout the colony, or even roads of the
parish trust standard ; there is actually nothing
between the scriptural and classic bullock
team and the locomotive. The first train
that runs between Sydney and Paramatta will work
a moral revolution by dissipating much prejudice
disguised under the name of "colonial experience."
It is quite time some efforts should be made ' - the
wealthiest and most exclusively English of the
British colonies is the last to attempt the construc-
tion of a railroad. The nearly ruined colony of
Jamaica has one, largely patronised by the free and
independent negroes ; the stationary Hindoo already
sees the swift train dash past him ; almost every
nation is in advance of the Australian Briton. The
novelty-hating Spaniard has a fragment of a line ;
the Russian, a mere barbarian as we call him, ne-
gotiates loans for no other purpose than the con-
struction of railroads ; and it was till lately an
equal chance that the proverbially unenterprising
Turk would have had a line across his territory
before the colonists of Australia could be brought
to believe that steam communication by land was
either advantageous or possible. Now they are
beginning to perceive that some activity is abso-
lutely necessary. The roads of the province, even
in the vicinity of the capital, are fast deterio-
rating ; everywhere they are neglected, and in the
interior have become so perilous that the mails
are ordered to carry no passengers by night ; a
dreadful accident, by which the Bathurst mail
was a short time since thrown over the precipice
of the Victoria Pass, has frightened the autho-
rities into issuing the order ; but it is no less
retrograding from the former state of the means of
communication, bad as they were. After long, and
almost patiently, seeinz wretched country roads
becoming worse every month, and continually
taught by the highrate of carriage for goods inland,
the merchants of Sydney are beginning to think
that something should be done. The last and most
direct impulse, however, has been given by the
opening of the river Murray to steam navigation.
Sydney is threatened with the loss of a large por-
tion of its traffic if the produce of the south of
New South Wales is floated down to Adelaide for
shipment, instead of being dragged up to the capi
tal. Good authorities state that much of the wool
of the Goulburn district will find its way to the sea
by the Murray, and that the whole of the traffic
beyond Yass will take the same direction. The
fleeces grown in the province of New South Wales
will then swell the export returns of South Aus-
tralia, and Sydney will lose both in importance
and profit. The last item of the loss, at least, is
one the Sydney traders can fully estimate, and ac-
cordingly they are considering whether a railroad
to the district towards the head of the navigable
portion of the Murray would not enable the port and
capital to keep its status in the colony. It is evident
nothing else will do it, and in any case the steamers
on the river, now they have really commenced
running, will command the traffic for many years.
The consideration of the necessity of a line in the
direction of the Murray has led to a better appre-
ciation of the advantages of others ; and the public
meeting above referred to also discussed the pro-
bable benefit of a railway to Newcastle or Mait-
land. But the more immediate object was stated
to be the construction of a great trunk line from
Sydney to Melbourne—
" By a company to be called the Sydney and Melbourne
Railway Company, to which it was to be expected, on
public grounds, the State would grant the amount of one-
half the estimated cost ; the amount to be raised by the
State issuing bonds, secured on the public revenues of the
colony, redeemable at the end of 30 or 50 years, the com-
Pan"' raising the other half by the issue of shares of say, 51.
reach, to be subscribed by the public in the colonies or in
gultand, without any Government guarantee ; the Govern-
ment,
't ifi it subscribes half the capital, to retain control
the
railway and its management in the ratio of its
PTO prietorthip.,,
This is the first shadowy outline of the scheme,
which has not yet taken shape enough to be sub-
mitted to the public t a second meeting, called to
discuss the
wias adjourned in consequence
of the arrival of the
everland mail.
The intelligence
more favourable. from The diggers the goldfields is a shade
after a somewhat prolonged ers are returning to work
indulgence in the fes-
tivities of Christmas •
brought down by the lastnoefs the quantity of gold
escort a slight in-
crease. In the early part
uponrliaawrkicinhsvreiidn of
auriferous quartz was found
'near Tambaroora, which is now being, worked gegood, though the
suc-
cessfully. Specimels of the vein have been sent
not yet
down to Sydney ; they eo.y_aret very
exact proportion of the rock has
been minutely- ascertained. The published accounts
of similar discoveries are generally to be accepted' I
with a large abatement, but to the Tambaroora,
vein, private letters confirm tne first reports of its
richness. The following is the. description of the
very g! given by the Bathurst
locality and the disco
Free Press of the 7th of January :
" Some eight or nine days ago a digger,ll c,arr.ei.l.i 1 paobnoautai27o3
of auriforous quartz on the side of the B
.H 11
yards from Wilson's public-house, and made .;nown t
who at onhce
e
circumstance to Mr. Joseph Withers, publican,
put a party to work on the point with splendid success. In
a very short time the discovery was bruited about Tamba-
roora, and a sudden rush was the consequence. Claims weree
speedily marked out on all sides of the lucky spot, and th
earth turned up with a celerity which nothing but the pro-
spect of a golden reward could have produced. At present
there are about 130 people at wo, k on the point, all of whom
are doing remarkably well, and many of them bagging
-their 20 to 30 ounces of the pure metal per day each party.
One lump of quartz of about the size of a brick was found
on the surface, which, when broken up and divided among
the six diggers who had a joint interest in it, was found
to contain 100/_ worth of gold of a brilliant bright colour ;
come of the pieces of the precious metal scattered through
the quartz weighing several pennyweights, and the largest
17 pennyweights. The locate of the new discovery is not
more than 300 or 400 yards from the head of the Golden
Gully, where the diggers have latterly been doing so well,
and is supposed to be a continuation of the same vein or
`lode,' extending thence to the Turon. The richness of
come of the claims may be estimated from the fact that