The next day, Sunday, we had to leave for Launceston, by a special train
of the Tasmanian Main Line, so as to be in time for the boat to
Melbourne, on which we depended for arrival prior to the opening of the
great Exhibition on 1st August. We formed a large and important party,
including the Governor and lady, the Premier, Treasurer, and
Attorney-General, while the Auditor-General and others were to follow a
few days after. We understood there was to be a general concourse from
all the surrounding colonies, and so far as regarded the official
contribution to the concourse Tasmania had done its duty.
While we ran along this, the chief railway of Tasmania, I recalled
something of the endless contentions between its proprietors or agents
and the Tasmanian Government. The question requires some study, for the
"literature" thereof has already swollen to most inconvenient
dimensions. Any way of it, the Government would have done best for the
colony if they had themselves built the line. As matters now stand, the
company cannot be made to maintain the line in due efficiency, because,
unfortunately, it has neither capital nor credit to do so. Nor can the
amount needed for that purpose be permitted to be taken out of earnings,
because that only increases the guaranteed
interest properly payable on the bonded debt of the line by the
Government. Nor can the Government keep back any of this latter amount,
because the "innocent and helpless bond-holders," or the company as
their advocate, are at once down upon them for such atrocity. Nor,
lastly, can the colony buy up the line and thus be extricated from the
mess, because the company utterly scouts the idea of a sale at mere
valuation.