Legislative Assembly Hansard 1876

Queensland Parliamentary Debates [Hansard] Legislative Assembly TUESDAY, 31 AUGUST 1876 Electronic reproduction of original hardcopy 584 Stamp Duties Amendment Bill. [ASSEMBLY.] Adjou-rnment, LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. Tuesda,IJ, 31 August, 1876. Adjournment.-Railway Survey to the Border.-The late Judge Blakeney.-Parliamentary Buildings.-Bridge across the Burdekin River.-Gowrie Railway Acci dent.-Adjournment.-Railway Survey from Bowen to Bowen River.-Queensland Nationai Bank Bill • .A.DJOURNM:ENT. Mr. MAcRoss.A.N said he rose to move the adjournment of the House for the purpose o[ bringing a matter of some importance under the notice of the Government and of horror able members. It was within the recollec tion of honorable members no doubt, that on the previous day he had asked the Premier whether the Government had taken any steps to discover the practicability of making a road from Trinity Bay to the Hodgkinson Gold Field ; and if so, what steps ; and that the answer then given by the honorable gen tleman was that no steps had been taken. Now, he thought it must be plainly intelli gible to every honorable member that the Government were hardly aware of the im portance of opening up a road between those places ; ihey did not seem to be aware that the distance from the Hodgkinson Gold Fields to Trinity Bay was, according to the reports of men who had gone to within a distance of only a few miles from the port, only eighty miles, whilst the distance by the present road from Cooktown to the Hodgkinson was two hundred miles. On the present road there were also several large rivers to be crossed, whilst on the other track there were none. When they took into consideration that in a short time some thousands of rounds were to be voted for making roads in the Cook district, and that it was quite possible that a large sum would be spent on the road between Cooktown and the Hodgkinson, he thought it was time that the House stepped in and got some information from the Government as to whether there was not a better road to be found, namely, one from the Hodgkinson to Trinity Bay. When they contrasted the action of the Government in the present matter with the action of a former Govern ment in the year 1873, when gold was first discovered on the Palmer River, he thought there was very little to be said in their favor, although they professed to be a more pro gressive Government than the Palmer admin istration. Why, the Government of the honorable member for Port Curtis, imme diately on the discovery of gold, took steps to open up the Palmer district, and a road was opened to the gold fields there in as few weeks as it had taken the present Govern ment months to open up the Hodgkinson. It was now five months since the Hodgkin son Gold Field was discovered, and yet the House had been told by the Premier on the previous day that no steps had been taken to discover whether it was practicable to make Adjournment. [31 AuGusr.] Adjournment. 685 a road to Trinity Bay, by which a distance of on the Hodgkinson two men would be em 120 miles would be saved. When they read ployed, and thus the Customs revenue would the reports of correspondents in the news be proportionately increased. What, he papers from the Hodgkinson Gold Field, he would ask, did the supineness ot' the Gov thought they must be at once impressed with ernmtnt mean? He could not tell; but he the importance of opening up the district as could say that very strange rumors were quickly as possible, as from these reports it about the town as to their conduct, and that must be the most important mining district about a fortnight ago he had a conversatipn in Queensland. He would refer to a letter with the honorable Minister for Lands on the he had received only a few weeks ago same subject, and mentioned then the report from a gentleman who had been to the he had heard, and which he would repeat to Hodgkinson for the purpose of seeing whether the House, namely, that the Government he should place some quartz-crushing were afraid to open a road to Trinity Bay for machinery on that gold field. He was a fear the merchants of Cooktown would make gentleman who was well known in the North their member withdraw his support from in connection with machinery erected by him them. He thought, however, from what he on various gold fields, and whose opinion knew of the people of Cooktown, that they therefore was of some value ; in his letter, were anxious to have the matter decided ; that gentleman said :- at present they were not entering into " I think the Hodgkinson will be an extensive any trade engag-ements for fear that im· gold field. Tl1e reefs are very large and well mediately afterwards the port of Trinity defined. The formation is slate and sandstone, Bay would be opened up and they some of them have a hanging wall of conglome would be nearly ruined. The same remark rate; strange to say, where the conglomerate would also apply to the people ot Townsville. forms the hanging wall, the quartz is generally He thought the Premier should look at the very rich. We visited nearly all the reefs and question from a national point of view, and tried prospects from most of them. On the not allow himself to be influenced by any fear whole, I think the prospects were satisfactory. I of offending the merehants of Cooktown. think if a new port is opened at Trinity Bay, it And although those merchants might not like will give a great impetus to the Hodgkinson. a road to be made from Trinity Bay to the There is an immense quantity of poor stone which Hodgkinson, still they would be more satis will pay when the means of living and crushing are cheap." fied by having the matter settled at once. He would also remind honorable members, Now, in that last sentence laid the whole gist that the summer, which in the North meant of the matter ; that there was an immense the wet season, would be in again soon, when quantity of poor stone that would pay well the rivers would be impassable, and no one when the means of living and the cost of could tell what might happen if the people on crushing were cheaper. But that would never the Hodgkinson were to be dependent upon be the case so long as the people there were Cooktown for supplies, with so many rivers compelled to depend upon Cooktown for between the two places. Thus it was most their supplies. Some honorable members important that immediate action should be had a knowled~e of the cost of carriage in taken by the Government to ascertain the North, and that every additional mile whether a road could not be made to Trinity meant so many exLra shillings a ton ; and Bay. He would not detain the House longer, when it was stated that the difference in the but he considered he should have failed in distance between the Hodgkinson and his duty had he not brought the matter for· Trinity Bay, and the Hodgkinson and Cook ward. He would move- town -yvas so great, he thought the Govern That this House do now adjourn. ment should not lose a moment in discovering whether a road could be made to the port The PREMIER said that in answer to the of Trinity Bay. Even rich stonewould not pay remarks of the honorable member for the all the expenses which it was necessary to incur Kennedy, he might state that the Govern before it could be crushed, if people were ment were fully alive to the fact of the Hodg obliged to pay the high prices they were kinsonbeing a rich, and in all probability, a per compelled to pay with the present cost of manent gold field, and they had consequently carriage. People who were inclined to erect taken every means to make a good road machinery on the Hodgkinson would think for the transit of goods from Cooktown to the twice before doing so,as the cost ofcarriage alone Hodgkinson, where there was plenty of grass would amount to from £500 to £1,000 on one and water. He believed that the rate ot car machine, and that must be taken into account riage was at present only £30 a ton. During the as increasing the cost of crusldng when the wet season, certainly, there would be some machine was on the ground. He thought difficulty in crossing the River Mitchell, but the House would agree with him when he the Government had ordered a proper boat said that the whole colony, more especially to be constructed. It was not known whether Brisbane, derived great benefit from the the road from the Hodgkinson to Trinit_y Bay trade in the North. They knew that by was a suitable one ; if so, private enterprise shortening the distance by road by more than would before long find it out. He had been QUe half, Where O:[le 111a)l W!\S ~OW em;ployed informed by a gentleman th!l-tthere w~s a range 586 Adjournment. [ASSEMBLY.] that would cause it to be almost impassable by The SFcRET.A.RY FOR PuBLIC LANDS said, drays,andhealsohadareportfromMr.Howard he wished to take the opportunity ofsayingthat' St. George, from which, he regretted to say, the Government were not actuated by any there appeared to be very little probability of' such idea as that which had been imputed to there ever being a road between those places.

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