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Government should provisionally allot 200,000 acres, in order that the syndicate might be immediately in a position to settle immigrants and workmen upon the land.

As to the other schemes, Colonel McMundo, for a syndicate, offered to construct a line from Albany to York or Beverley, and from Albany to the border of South Australia. In return, he asked for a grant of 10,000 acres per mile, to be selected in alternate blocks along the lines, and for power to issue mortgage bonds to the amount of £4,000 per mile, with interest at 3½ per cent. guaranteed by be Government for thirty years, such bonds to be issued for every five miles constructed and equipped. He proposed to introduce forty immigrants for each mile of railway built.

The scheme of Sir Julius Vogel and Mr. Audley Coote was most elaborate. They offered to build a railway on the land-grant system from Beverley to Eetakup, thence easterly and northerly to Eucla, skirting the coast in such a manner as subsequent surveys might suggest. They were willing to agree to the terms submitted by the aforesaid committee with but few exceptions, the most important being that the work of construction be begun within two, and completed within twelve years, and that trains be run twice a week, or more frequently, if necessary, to connect with mail steamers. They were willing to accept the committee's recommendations in regard to land grants and subsidies for immigrants, but wanted the free use of Government railways for their own engines and plant. Later on these gentlemen expressed their willingness to construct an alternate line from York, via Hampton Plains, to Eucla on the same terms, and to deposit a reasonable sum as a guarantee. Moreover, they offered to undertake harbour improvements at Fremantle for payment by debentures, or partly in debentures and partly in land.

A second Select Committee was appointed in August, and consisted of the Commissioner of Railways, the Commissioner of Lands, Sir T.C. Campbell, Messrs. Lee-Steere, Brown, Randell, and Shenton. These gentlemen favoured the construction of land-grant railways in accordance with the previous committee's report and proposals, and recommended that negotiations be entered into for the construction of lines from York to Eucla via Hampton Plains, and from Beverley to Albany. In their opinion the line through Hampton Plains to Eucla to open up direct communication with the eastern colonies would be the most beneficial, as it would develop the pastoral resources of the south-eastern portions of eastern Australia, and make Fremantle the port of call for mail steamers. They recognised that the construction of harbour works at Fremantle was a necessary feature of the overland route, and inclined more favourably to the proposals of Sir Julius Vogel and Mr. Coote than to those of Mr. Hordern and Colonel McMundo. Governor Broome asked that the Government be allowed to conclude negotiations, and the Committee was willing to concede that privilege provided that, were any material alteration required, a final ratification of the agreement should be left to the Legislature.

A further communication was received from Mr. Hordern, and a third Committee—Commissioner of Lands, Sir T.C. Campbell, Messrs. Brown, Manning, Randell, S.H. Parker, and Lee-Steere was appointed, and decided in favour of his amended proposal, against that of Sir Julius Vogel and Mr. Coote. At the same time the advantages of laying a line of railway to Eucla were not lost sight of, and, both for the opening up of waste pastoral lands and to connect all the Australian colonies by railway, the project found numerous supporters. From a defensive point of view in times of war the construction of this line would have been of first importance, but owing to the antipathy of South Australia to land-grant railways the proposal was temporarily allowed to drop. This left the Beverley-Albany scheme to be determined. The terms were then arranged and agreed to by the Legislature, largely as recommended by the Committee, and the contract was signed by Mr. Hordern and the Government on 25th October, 1884.

It was agreed that the syndicate receive 12,000 acres for every mile of railway constructed, and that the lands be selected within a belt of forty miles on either side of the line, but with half the frontage reserved to the Government. The syndicate promised to deposits guarantee of £10,000, which would be forfeited upon non-fulfilment of contract. The total distance from the Albany end to Beverley was 241 miles, or, to the end of the company's jetty at Albany, 243 miles. This would give the projectors an area of 2,916,000 acres of land. By the terms of the contract Mr. Hordern was to introduce 5,000 immigrants at the rate of not more than 1,000, nor less than 700, a year. For these people the Government promised to pay £10 for each statute adult (two children under twelve years of age to be reckoned as one adult); or, at the option of the contractor, fifty acres of land for each statute adult, such land to be selected in blocks of 10,000 acres, and and in conformity with the land regulations of the colony.

A company, entitled the Western Australian Land Company, was floated in London with a capital of £300,000 in shares, £500,000 in debentures. Mr. T.W. Powell was the first chairman of directors. Mr. Anthony Hordern, the promoter, formulated glowing schemes for the settlement of population along the route. It was provided that the company could declare town sites at intervals, and these, Mr. Hordern intended, should be model centres, while between them he hoped to eventually see many a thriving farm, home, and garden. Perhaps his nature was over sanguine, and his beatific visions certainly did partake of the unreality and inconsideration of detail and toil peculiar to those of the promoters of the Australind Settlement, of Mr. Thos. Peel, Colonel Lautour, and others. Mr. Hordern proposed to introduce a steady stream of immigrants to settle on the company's lands.

He had also intended to endeavour to reclaim a large body of poison land, and in 1884 submitted a proposal to the Government to erect a College of Agriculture, the curriculum of which should include not only agriculture, but all branches of a liberal education. The syndicate formed to carry out this scheme asked for the right to select in any district of the colony 25,000,000 acres of land at rental for ninety-nine years of not more than 40s. per 1,000 acres of first-class lands, and 20s. per 1,000 acres of second-class lands, with the right of purchase during the ninety-nine years at the upset price under the Land Regulations of 1882. The first land chosen was to be devoted to a college domesne and an experimental farm. From other selections the syndicate might sell or lease to scholars or settlers who might desire to cultivate under the guidance of professors of the college. As a guarantee, the syndicate would first select 100,000 acres and expend thereon a sum of, at least, £5,000, and unless suitable buildings for college purposes were erected and opened within five years such block and all improvements would revert to the Crown. They also proposed to erect, as occasion demanded, colleges in different parts of the colony, and, when sufficient numbers of associated farmers were got together, to establish butter, cheese, olive oil, or other factories, and wineries. This latter scheme was referred to the Legislative Council, a Select Committee of which reported, on 28th August, 1884, adversely to it. Mr. Hordern proposed to build tramways on the land-grant system between Perth, Fremantle, Bunbury, Busselton, and Kojonup, but the Government would have none of it.