Queensland Guardian (Brisbane), 1 July 1862, p. 3
TELEGRAPH TO THE NORTH.
To the Editor of the Queensland Guardian.
SIR,—I have not had an opportunity of examining the
Queensland Estimates, and therefore I am not certain whether my object in
writing to you may not have been anticipated by the apportionment of a
sufficient sum for the extension of the telegraph line as far as Rockhampton
during the current financial year. But I have seen no reference made to it in
the newspapers, and I therefore claim a small space in your columns for the
purpose of drawing attention to an undertaking of such importance to the
Australian public that it must sooner or later be accomplished, and one which I
think should be energetically pushed on by the Queensland Government.
We are already spectators of the rapid steps which our
squatters are taking northward, and it requires no great foresight to
anticipate the changes which will take place when the mail line by Torres
Straits is run through, and when we are thus daily more and more brought into
contact with China and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The current of
commerce must then flow in a strong current to the shores of Queensland, and we
shall surely do well to encourage the set of the tide in our favor.
I say then that in three years we ought to have a telegraph
line open to Carpentaria. The civic ardour which finds vent at present in
volunteer habits, in militia phantasmagoria, and in defences external and
internal, may surely light into enthusiasm when it speculates on the strategy
of the telegraph and the peaceful conquest of half a continent.
Railways are quite beyond our strength at present, but here
is something we can do, and which we evidently ought to set about doing without
delay. It is of more importance to us than any railway we shall ever make. More
than this,—it is a sort of foreign policy, and in states, small as well as
great, nothing conduces to the vitality and dignity of the constitution more
than a spirited external action. Your Government, it is true, can have no
relations with foreign powers, unless, indeed, you dignify New South Wales or
Victoria with such appellations. Nor is it permitted to Mr. Herbert or Mr.
Macalister, like Lord Palmerston or Mr. Gladstone, to give weighty deliverances
on international ethics, but it does come within its sphere, by enterprise and
devotion, to assist in the great work of rendering homogeneous and self-reliant
the great continent which we own in common. Such a scope would the great
Northern Telegraph have. And as to its cost?—
The telegraph lines which are now being constructed in New
South Wales and Victoria do not cost more than £30 a mile. The distance from
Dalby to Port Denison by the present track via Rannes, Rockhampton, and Port
Cooper, is as near as possible seven hundred and forty miles; but a saving of
at least fifty miles ought to be made by the more direct line which the wires
would take; so that we may say that by this route Port Denison might be reached
in six hundred and ninety miles from Dalby. Instead of thirty posts to the
mile, it would be better and cheaper to have ten, and it would also be an
improvement to increase the weight of the wire. Allowing that such a line would
cost one third more than the New South Wales lines, we have a total cost of
£31,750.
Then from Port Denison to Flinders River on the Gulf is some
four hundred and fifty miles in a nearly direct line; but allowing for
divergences let us say six hundred and fifty, at a cost of £100 a mile, showing
an expenditure of £65,000; and a total on the whole line from Dalby of
£116,750. Maintenance for three years in excess of receipts, I estimate at
£5000 a year, equal to £15,000, which would thus bring the amount required up
to £131,750. Now, if the Treasurer is authorised by the Assembly to raise money
for this purpose as he requires it, the cost to the country will be less than
£7000 a year, with the certainty that in a few years the receipts would cover
expenses and pay at least 5 per cent. on the original capital.
Seven thousand a year! For what?—For that which will advance
Queensland more than the expenditure of £50,000 a year on any other enterprise
which it is within my power to compass.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
JOHN DOUGLAS.
Liverpool, New South Wales,
19th June, 1862.
