Reap the Benefits of the Successful Striv¬
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* i i i Foreword [ HIS BOOKLET, describing the growth and development of the T country districts of Victoria, laimamiamiait » « t t i M t i purpose. > » * has . • • • a double It is •4 * * m B* V * •«•liMWM ‘ designed to tell the story— of necessity briefly—of one of the eight great districts into which Vic¬ toria is divided. It is also designed to remind a new generation of the great and dominant part played in this story by UThe Age” throughout the 75 years of its far-sighted influence on public life. The pressure of to-day sometimes causes us to forget the debt due to yesterday. We i reap the benefits of the successful striv¬ ing and initiative of a great organ of public opinion, but forget the principles of policy upon which that striving and initiative are grounded. The supreme service rendered by “The Age” is comprehended in the twin policies of “Unlocking the Lands for the People and “Protection.” Each arose out of the 1 historic necessities of the State after the Gold Rush had ended. But each was based upon a reasoned conception of State¬ craft which aimed at a State consisting of hundreds of thousands of families working on farms and in factories, masters of their i own home market, owning on easy terms their own freeholds, protected by a tariff from the unfair competition of oversea competitors, and possessing such a wide franchise, and so many representative in¬ stitutions, as to be really a Free Democ¬ racy within the British Empire. The fight for these policies of “The Age” was long and sometimes bitter, but in the result splendidly successful. From 1856, when “The Age” raised the cry. aUnlock the Lands,” to the great Land Act of 1898, it was a stern struggle by this great paper to open up the country for the common people, to free it from the grip of squattocracy and to make land acquisition possible to people of small means. From 1860, when “The Age” first raised the flag of Protection, down to the Lyne Tariff of 1908, for the entire Com¬ monwealth, the stern, unwavering battle for Protection for farmer and industrialist alike Avas waged. To-day Protection, which means millions yearly to the Vic¬ torian producer, is the policy of the nation; that which began in “The Age99 office nearly 70 years ago, is the economic basis of Australia. Without it the Aus¬ i tralian farmer would have, at best, had a local market of 2,000.000 people, as against over 6,000,000 people under Protection. \ Behind the two great policies thus briefly described, “The Age >9 in 1929 stands as it did in the early days. Advances in science and invention, methods of finance, cultivation, selling and marketing, are wel- coined, so that the fruit of the policies may reach the humblest settler or artisan. As these pages show, “The Age” has been, and continues to be, the best fmend the Australian farmer has possessed in this community. • r * . a r 9ÿ , >>: a 9 9 * 9 • P 9 4 9 9 4 9* 9 9 a r 9 « ytv. aÿa V. , 9 9 4 9* '4 9 4 • , 9 \ 4 J 4 4 9 9 9 4 9 ~ « LV*_ a ' * * .4 . 9ÿ 9 * 9 4 4 4 '9 a v 4 9 V.'i *9~ * / 9 . r 9ÿ 4 4 4ÿ I , 4 Wifi 4* 9 A ;ivX"-\v V •*.v 9 X- 1 ,4 , 9 , • ::>4IP a . 4. *a . r - . xx-xs?:' * 4 V./. * ,4 4 . 4 Pÿl Sv>; > V:4: d J 4, Pÿ| 4 A * • / V A1-- J r*/i 4 r. 4 4 » * PV' 4 i a • a . / irAa m K, * 4. 4 y.y.v X *5 p £ \ r » 1ÿ1 £ » m_4.V.*,1,\sv V. 4ÿ1 WAMV 4* M 4 + 4 4 V.' 4 4 "jfl I 4,4 4 4 4a.-, .ÿt 4 A 4. <r < • * 4 4 v/-\y 9 V 'ÿV. f rf> «Ai # * A » f • « 4 • - f 4 .V. /ÿ 4, * v; f 4 ,4 4 v!v!4 4 4 4. ,4 :*ÿ / / w Ji II F 4 , a * 4 I !ÿÿÿÿÿ, pVi i B38«KSt 4 4 4 r . •r »:ÿ>:'• p ;:vX»: v>: AVi-AVX 1 4 4 v!ÿ • 4 >fl»1 4 / v :.1/, YIVA A'.VANV.W V/,V ’ X'SW’M - 4 .V •'v.v. ,s* ii. i :;:::-:x:: ,p <*;**Cvww-x-v-w-x-:*SL. 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T 4. /p* a r r r a « ,V4*. a a J• a 1 4_4_l 1 ,'IVaVaV.S5* a 4-4* r_< P 4i 4’.V,- aÿi ' 4' 4ÿ €>.. - J • — :-:**:*:*?:*j: I,V.V4\%V.V.V. _ ’J <•. / ,.,4V,,,,t-i 4 V«%V 4 v: %,4%•ÿW.V-V‘PV,V.V4 <9i 4%’ 4 w 4 rs, 4 9 :> a >o 4 / * 4 I a *4 V-*4 > *45T4*»P , 4 4 !> g I - 4 J a 4 PÿViV 4 a W 4 PL ' BÿB a _* < 4 * 4 4 4 a 4 4 4 « 'a'a' 4 ,4 r a V4 t r 4 4 4 a a •X. 4,4‘.J**4'.’.' 4 4. 4 k r a t;: 'X:-;-:-:: a r*. _ PI4444ag:-x - P P a a f 44 I k 7rX'. 1ÿ4 # V, _4ÿa v 4 4 -.. .vx*:*tta 4 ,4 . r' p V 4 4 • 4ÿ 1 P. 4ÿ / >4 ...ÿ> 4_4 a 4ÿ4 ,4 P 4 VkY.V •“P •‘X -V>: 4 4* 4 ,-,4' 4 V P 4 a 4 ,4 f4 4 t 4 I 4ÿ 4 P '-J 4*“4 P 4 a < 4 4 * 41 4< 4 +. 4. 4 MMMMHH—JillfP®8 -4 ENTRANCE TO BENALLA * L o« > Nucleus of a Vigorous Development T is a far cry from the year 1824, when Hume and Hovell crossed the Ovens River on their first expedition from New South Wales to Port Phillip. Almost as far re¬ moved from the early squatting period, which began in 1835, to flourish in lusty pioneering vigor, is moreover, the nucleus of that rural self-development which spells progress in North-Eastern Victoria to-dav. For that mountainous land of promise, bounded, roughly, by Yarra- wonga, Euroa, Mansfield, Bright, and Corryong, below the Murray, and known rather prosaically as “the North-East, dawned for democracy with the opening up of the Ovens goldfield in 1853. Few of us sigh for a recurrence of those rest¬ less days of the gold rushes. They stripped life bare in their feverish bustle and reckless cosmopolitanism. But they did something more, unconsciously per¬ haps; they sowed the seeds of a common prosperity. When 14,000 diggers as¬ sembled at Moonlight Creek, Forest Creek, and Woolshed to demonstrate their resentment of the vicious adminis- tration of an unjust licensing system which preceded adoption of the miner’s 4 right, they were making Australia safe for democracy. Their protest may have been direct and violent, but the means j 4 justified the end brought about by the tragic Eureka Stockade incident of 1854. It was during this vital stage of Aus¬ tralia’s political history that “The Age,V the journal which best expressed the virile Liberal reaction against an effete Con¬ 4 servatism which threatened like a blight to settle on this fair land, was founded. From the year of its foundation, 1854, kC The Age” never ceased to uphold the rights of people in their developmnt of t » Australia Felix.” Its unwavering policy of fostering secondary industry, to func¬ tion hand in hand with primary industry, was pursued even while jeopardising its own pecuniary stability. But the wisdom of that policy has become apparent in every sphere of production. For a long time Wangaratta, the oldest town in the North-East, was the centre of early com¬ munity life. The “father” of the town¬ ship, William Henry Clarke, grew 5 or G acres of wheat there in 1846, and grist¬ ing was done by hand mills until the erection of the first steam flour mill in 1856. In 1849 the first brick building was erected in Wangaratta, and to-day brick kilns are conspicuous in many of the North-Eastern towns. Quite early in the history of the settlement a foundry was established there. In Benalla to-day there are not only foundries operating, but the hum of saw mills is heard in Euroa and Violet Town, there are woollen mills at Wangaratta, and weaving mills nlso at Euroa, while Beechworth is the home of a large tannery. Cordial fac¬ tories are general in the larger towns, 5 Leading Towns : Benalla, Rutherglen, Wodonga, Omeo, Euroa, Mansfield. DIVISIONAL STATISTICS ~ i f. < 1928. 1908. 1928. 1908. Area Cultivated. Cultivated Acres. i Production. Production. Acres. Acres. Total Area 150,085 Total Area . 147,500 Wheat 44,372 Wheat 34,300 906,428 bushels 591,000 bushels t Oats 8,287 Oats 24,900 238,138 f f 821,000 5 J Hay 44,000 Hay 54,000 65,000 tons 81,000 tons Maize 2,399 Maize 1,493 86,695 bushels 46,000 bushels Vines 5,400 Vines 9,302 Grapes Grapes 125,786 cwt.