Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/200

 for Maiden's Punt and Albury, with 2723 bags of flour, besides a large quantity of miscellaneous produce and imports. This is beginning in good earnest, and we do not see why merchants and importers cannot at once avail themselves of the markets open at the diggings. The heavy state of the roads between Melbourne and the Gold Fields is already enhancing the cost of carriage, which a fortnight ago was £18 per ton to Castlemaine only, with an expectation of further advance. Carriage to Bendigo may therefore be set down at £25 per ton for the present time, to which £3 per ton must be added as the cost of freight from Port Adelaide to Melbourne. If therefore, the market price of flour in Adelaide is £22, its market price at Bendigo, via Melbourne, cannot be less than from £47 to £50; leaving a margin for expenses and profit of not less than £25 per ton to the Adelaide shipper. The charge for freight from Adelaide to Maiden's Punt, on the Murray, is £8 per ton; and the charge for the subsequent overland conveyance to Bendigo, £5 per ton. It is, therefore, quite certain that during the navigable season on the Murray, it is in our power, so long as there is no Melbourne and Bendigo Railway, wholly to supply the Bendigo Gold Fields, if we have but enterprise equal to our opportunities. The railway through our own country to the Murray will, of course, still further facilitate our movements; and no effort should be spared to carry out so important a work with the utmost speed;