vigorous speech by Sir John Forrest, during which he signified his willingness to deal with the question, he motion was withdrawn. An Educational Act Amendment Bill was introduced and carried, and provided for a more advanced system of education. A bill was also passed terminating the ecclesiastical grant.
The goldfields people were not satisfied with the budget speech, and they complained that their part of the colony was not receiving its fair share of public expenditure. Since the beginning of the year they had evinced a spirit of agitation. Gold-diggers and miners, and the general business men who serve them, are essentially democratic in their views. And with their democracy there is a strong cosmopolitan strain. They are frank, and they are fearless. The policy of most communities is not progressive enough for them. There are always men of superior talent among them, and men who have the power to lead, which, according to a recent utterance of Lord Rosebery, is something greater than talent. The men on the goldfields were decidedly more democratic than those in most parts of the colony. They agitated restlessly in the latter part of 1895, and in 1896. A Goldfields League was formed, mainly to obtain the redress of grievances. Objection was taken not only to the public expenditure on the goldfields, but to the administration of certain Government departments, to the mining law, and slightly to the presence of Afghans on the fields.
The Telegraph Department was not able to transmit within a reasonable time all the messages lodged at the offices. Business on the goldfields and in Perth and Fremantle had become exceedingly important, and was fraught with large issues. A delay in the transmission of telegrams was often fatal, and caused substantial losses to the interested parties. In 1895 it was found that the telegraphic system could not manage the business entrusted to it. Transactions involving considerable capital had sometimes either to be suspended or broken off because of the difficulty of obtaining quick communication with London or the Eastern colonies. The line from Albany to Eucla collapsed at inopportune times, and on more than one occasion the line from Coolgardie to Perth failed. The goldfields people blamed the Government, and made fierce accusations against the permanent heads of the Post and Telegraph Departments. They held public meetings, formed deputations, and wrote bitterly in the press. As the year 1895 advanced, the state of affairs became more complicated, and telegrams received at the usual rates at Coolgardie were sometimes sent to Perth by mail. Business of the nature of that arising on the goldfields was bound to suffer severely under such circumstances. Mr. Wittenoom, who had charge of the Telegraph Department, proposed to construct a duplicate line from Coolgardie to South Australia, and the permanent heads sought to render the existing system as reliable as possible. New telegraph operators were employed, but, owing to the exigencies of administration, could not obviate the block. The Government proposed to Parliament in June that a telegraph line be laid from Coolgardie via Dundas to Eucla to duplicate with the Albany system, and £25,000 was set apart in the estimates for this purpose.
There was also a congestion in the railway traffic. The rolling stock in possession of the department was quite inadequate to meet the demands upon the railways. The delays that took place in the transhipment of goods added to the irritation existing on the goldfields and in Perth and Fremantle. Considerable sums had been expended on the improvement of the old lines of railway, and the estimates of 1895 provided for a further sum of £80,000 for improvements and rolling stock on open railways. At the same time £30,000 was set apart for the development of the goldfields and mineral resources, and £47,861 for water-supply, besides a substantial sum for the extension of the telegraph system and for postal conveniences on the goldfields. To the goldfields people these sums appeared inadequate, and they increased their agitation for more consideration. The Government was not in a happy position. Settlement was extending over such a large and inaccessible area that to supply the more remote districts with all they desired was almost impossible. At the same time it is but just to say again that in pursuance of their vigorous policy since taking office they were as courageous as any cautious, yet enterprising, politician could expect. The goldfields people were too liable to expect that in the centre of an arid wilderness they should receive many of the conveniences of the metropolis. In their agitations they were justified, for it is by such means that grievances are best made known and are declared with weight; and in all agitations, as Parliamentary oppositions, a certain amount of exaggeration is to be expected, and in certain circumstances is even permissible.
As soon as Parliament assented to the construction of the telegraph line from Coolgardie to Eucla the Government forwarded the indent for material to London, and Mr. Wittenoom made arrangements for placing a duplicate wire on the line between Perth and Kalgoorlie. But before these reliefs could be afforded the congestion was intensified. Opprobrium was heaped on the Postal Department. There were long delays in the delivery of correspondence in the metropolis as well as on the goldfields. This was excusable in the latter centres where the original buildings had rapidly become too small to meet the requirements. The Government was erecting new structures in various places, but in the meantime the difficulties were increasing, and there was no room to accommodate a large staff. The mail service on the goldfields prior to the construction of railways was carried out under contract with coaching firms, and here too the goldfields people found cause for complaint. The Postmaster-General increased the number of officers under his control by hundreds, and even then objectionable delays were announced. The expansion in business in the three departments—telegraphic, railway, and postal—was such that it seemed impossible to keep pace with it.
On the 8th October, 1895, a large indignation meeting at Coolgardie, presided over by Mayor Shaw, protested against the delays in the Post and Telegraph Departments, and adverted to the state of the water-supply. The Government was accused of inactivity and of being incapable of managing the affairs of the colony. Reference on this and other occasions was made to the very slight representation which the mineral industry had in Parliament. The goldfields population, variously estimated at from twenty-five to forty thousand people, possessed only three representatives, a number that was undoubtedly inadequate. A large public meeting, presided over by Mayor J. Wilson, was held at Kalgoorlie, on 5th October, and gave special prominence to this question. But some speakers declared that, instead of asking for increased representation, the goldfields people should agitate for separation from the rest of the colony. It was held by one advocate of this extreme measure that people entering Western Australia from other Australian colonies, and from various parts of the British Empire, were classed as disfranchised aliens; another said that 40,000 people on the goldfields were governed by 10,000 in the old settled districts. The condition of the Post and Telegraph Departments was condemned in scathing terms, and bitter reference was made to the small sums spent by the Government on the goldfields in comparison to the large sums received from them. Another public meeting at Coolgardie on 16th October again condemned the
