Though the Federal government is empow ered to construct railways for the Common wealth, it can do so only after receiving the consent of each state through which the rail way line has to pass, and the localism and jealousy of the states have in many cases pre vented the construction of Federal railway lines. South Australia held up, for a consider able time, in order to secure special state con cessions, the projected Federal railway laid out across the centre of the island from east to west; and other Federal railway projects have met similar difficulties. The plan to unify the railway system of Australia met for years with strong opposition from local state inter ests. The result of this short-sighted polio is that not only have state interests suffere but the development of vast fertile regions o the interior has been retarded and their settle ment discouraged to such an extent that the more populous centres of the island went so far as to persistently misrepresent the conditions for agricultural development obtaining in in terior districts. Through these misrepresenta tions the outside world was long led to look upon Australia as a land of great deserts bordered by a fertile belt running round the coast of the island. This misrepresentation gave the death blow temporarily to the up building of a great railway system which would undoubtedly have opened up and developed the rich interior districts of the island and solved the question of attracting immigrants. Owing to the early developed and long continued in tense localism, Australia has become an ardent advocate of state-owned railways; but as the railways were, for the most part, under the control of the states, whose local antagonism was well known, it became very difficult for these local entities to secure foreign capital for the building of roads which, in many cases °began nowhere and ended nowhere.° The states were generally disinclined to take risks by extending existing railways or build ing new ones into sparsely settled or unpopu lated districts; and they were equally unwilling to encourage or even allow exploiting com panies to take risks in railway extension where they declined to do so themselves; and even to the few companies to whom concessions were granted, for special local or industrial reasons, to construct private railways, they refused to grant concessions of vacant lands. Thus one of the greatest incentives of modern times to the development of unpopulated districts has been legislated out of existence in Australia.
The control of harbors, rivers, telegraphs and telephones came naturally under the gov ernment of the individual states. The incon venience of this condition of affairs was early seen and the six distinct state postal and tele graph departments were taken over by the Federal executive in 1901 and amalgamated, and the administration placed in the hands of a Postmaster-General; a cabinet minister and a secretary for each state acting under the Post master-General. But notwithstanding the fact that the Federal legislature was thus put in control of the postal and telegraph business of the Commonwealth the localism of the states made it necessary to retain, for a time, existing postal rates, which the states were unwilling to give up. The Postal and Tele graph Rates Act of 1 Nov. 1902 provided for uniform charges in all states for the conveyance by post of newspapers and the transmission of telegrams, but it was not until 1910 that uniform postage rates became part of the law of the Commonwealth under the Postal Rates Act which became effective 1 May 1911. The passage of this act and the good results to local and Federal business interests which re stilted therefrom did probably more than any one other factor to uniform the sentiment throughout Australia in favor of a united rail way policy. This unity of sentiment was
heightened by Australia's very active participa tion in the European War which gave Federal executive an influence over the states of the Commonwealth which it had never be fore possessed, and tended very strongly to increase the feeling of nationality throughout the land and the subjection of local interests to the welfare of the island as a whole. Burn ing questions which have long stirred up state rivalries, such as riparian rights, seem in a fair way to be settled amicably in the interest of the common weal. This latter question, at one time, seriously threatened to affect trans portation of river, railway and port. South Australia greatly feared that the deflection of the waters of the rivers Darling and Murray by riparian landowners for irrigation and other purposes would so lower the water in these rivers as to kill the river trade to the railways and the coast from the towns along the banks within state territory. This bitter ness of feeling over state water rights. exerted a very strong influence upon the railway policies of the four interested states, South Australia, on the one hand, and New South Wales, Victoria and, incidentally, Queensland, on the other, by accentuating their desire to each thwart the commercial schemes of its rival states by preventing their making use of the railways within its own boundaries under conditions favorable to their commercial ambi tions. According to Federal law preferential rates in the various states had to be approved by an interstate commission; but the states easily found a way to avoid the provisions of this law, which was somewhat weak-kneed in its provisions and still more so in its enforce meat. Lately, however, sentiment has turned strongly in favor of the enforcement of this and other laws for the development of the interests of the Commonwealth and the up building of a truly national spirit in commercial as well as in other respects.
The first short railway was opened in Aus tralia in 1855, but building did not become active until 1875, and then only in sections of the southeast of the island. In 1855 Australia possessed 23 lines of railway; in 1861, 243; in 1871, 1,042; in 1881, 4,192; in 1891, 10,123; in 1901, 13,551; in 1910, 17,421; in 1912, 18,677. The mileage of railways increased more slowly in Australia during war years than in normal times preceding the outbreak of the European strife. During the fiscal year ending 30 June 1916, the government lines open for traffic were increased by 676 miles, while private lines actually decreased 33 miles. During the pre vious year the increase in the mileage of the government lines was 1,735 miles and that of the private lines 146 miles. At the close of the fiscal year ending 30 June 1915, the railway mileage of the several states was as follows: New South Wales, 4,134; Victoria, 3,848; Queensland, 4,839; South Australia, 2,168; North Territory, 145; Western Australia, 3,332; and Tasmania, 533 miles. The cost of con struction of these various state lines was in round numbers: New South Wales, $267,500,000; Victoria, $229,000,000; Queens land, $138,500,000; South Australia, $5,000,000; Western Australia, $66,000,000; Tasmania, $21,000,000. At the close of the fiscal year ending 30 June 1917, Australia possessed about 22,000 miles of government and privately owned railways.