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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 65

Home Railway

Home Railway.

In this connection, and regarding improved means of transport and communication, I must allude to a subject which I often wonder has so seldom been discussed by the Press and the public of these Colonies. I mean the railway which could be made through Australia and Asia, and thence Home. The European part is already nearly covered. The Asiatic part is nearly all under the influence and the power of Britain. The short voyage by sea from Singapore to Port Darwin is of course open. And from Port Darwin to Melbourne we have British page 134 ground. By this route it may be new to some to hear that the journey from Dunedin to London need not occupy more than 20 clays; less than half the time it now takes. The advantageous results of such a railway would be enormous: advantages moral, material, political, and religious, and to generations yet unborn, and embracing a very large portion of the human race. The primal home of the human race, now a desert, might blossom again, and many nations would pass from death unto life. That jealousy and stupidity would have to be combated in the undertaking is not impossible, but if Britain could overcome and accomplish, she would cover herself with a glory never known before, and her office as the leader and teacher of men would be immeasurably strengthened. It might be urged that New Zealand, from its insular and disconnected position, would not be benefited to the level of the other countries. But though this should be admitted as true (it is not so certain), yet the position when calculated as to its drawbacks in time and money, is not very serious. All the Australian Colonies should never cease to keep this undertaking before the eyes of the British Parliament. We knew something, I may add, about the nationalisation of railways. The time may yet come when arterial lines of railway from country to country and from continent to page 135 continent will be internationalised. There are now cases extant where a country has a right-of-way through a neighbouring State, from one part of its territory to another thereon.