administration of the three congested departments, and the failure of the Government to keep promises which the speakers said had been made. Mayor Shaw took the opportunity to oppose the separation proposal.
Mr. Wittenoom, in reply to protests sent by committees appointed at these meetings, admitted that there was insufficient accommodation in the post and telegraph offices on the fields, but he pointed out that the Public Works Department was pushing on with new buildings so as to enable the business to be conducted with more expedition and system. Ministerial visits had previously been made to the goldfields centres, and in November and December Sir John Forrest toured to several parts of the eastern fields. Wherever he went he received a hearty and demonstrative welcome. He was tendered numerous banquets, was deputationised, and driven hither and thither with great ceremony. In these ways the goldfields people at once did honour to the Premier of the colony, and gave him the opportunity of testing the worth of their grievances. Sir John visited the Government buildings, the sources of water-supply, and some of the mines. He addressed private and public, large and small, gatherings at various places, and toured to Kalgoorlie, Broad Arrow, Bardoc, Goongarrie, Siberia, Menzies, Niagara, and other districts. He was greatly impressed with the developments which had taken place; he took no exception to the manner in which requests were put before him; he observed the carcases of dead animals in the sources from which water was sometimes obtained; he promised that the Government would do all in its power to assist the miners and provide a water-supply, even if it had to be conducted from the coast; he undertook that registration on the electoral rolls should be facilitated throughout the fields, and he hinted that the Government felt disposed to grant the goldfields people additional representatives in Parliament. Sir John's tact and vigorous speeches pleased the goldfields people, while the importance of the mineral country and the splendid work done by the inhabitants clinched and stamped the views of the Premier. The tour was a great political success.
While the Premier was making this visit to the eastern goldfields the Minister for Mines was touring the central or Murchison fields. He inspected mines, received deputations, and enquired into grievances at Yalgoo, Melville, Mount Magnet, the Island, the Mainland (Austin's), Cue, Day Dawn, Cuddingwarra, and Nannine. Everywhere he went he was received with testimonies of respect for his important office, and everywhere he was pleased with the steady progress which had been made since a previous visit. He also announced that the Government was determined to do its best for the goldfields.
So far as the purely local grievances on the goldfields were concerned, the Government immediately set to work to fulfil the promises made by the Premier on his trip, and provision was made for water conservation in numerous centres. But the block on the railways and in the post and telegraph departments could not be so easily grappled with. The railway congestion assumed more serious proportions; messages received for transmission by telegraph were sometimes sent in hundreds by mail; and the postal delivery was uncertain, and isolated letters were at times delivered weeks behind time. The cry concerning these annoyances became louder in Perth and Fremantle and on the fields. The system followed in the Postal Department was severely criticised, and the permanent heads were referred to in more bitter terms than before. The Public Works Department was hurrying forward the erection of the duplicate telegraph wires. In the railways, the Minister was condemned, and the whole blame for the block was laid at his door. Little allowance was made for the unparalleled nature of the circumstances. There was a block, and the people had to find someone to blame. The rolling stock was altogether too limited to meet the traffic, and the public seemed to expect that new rolling stock should be and could be obtained in a few weeks. They did not appear to recognise that before such orders could be supplied many months must elapse. When arguments of this nature were advanced by responsible authorities the public, retorted that a business man, taking account of the probable eventuation of such an influx of people, and consequent increase of trade, would have ordered months beforehand so as to be ready for the emergency. The Government was in anything but a pleasant predicament, and was assailed with relentless persistency.
In the second week of January, 1896, when the inflow of people was at its height, a meeting of merchants and shipping agents at Fremantle declared that the lack of system displayed by the Railway Department had resulted in the complete disorganisation of traffic. Perishable goods were destroyed on the wharves; railway trucks were loaded indiscriminately—potatoes and onions at the bottom, with machinery on the top; boxes of butter were exposed to the hot sun, so that their contents melted and spread over the wharves. During the next few weeks the outcry was exciting. The Morning Herald, at Perth, a survival of the historical Inquirer, attacked the Government, and published page after page of complaints. On the 19th February an important meeting of merchants and other citizens was held in the Perth Town Hall. The Mayor, Mr H.J. Saunders, M.L.C., presided, and the meeting was addressed by Messrs. F. Wilson, G. Leake, M.L.A., Illinworth, M.L.A., Coombes, Stubbs, Mills, Haynes, Read, and others. The administration of the Railway, and Post and Telegraph Departments was denounced. Mr. Wilson elected to blame the Ministers rather than the subordinates, and he first attacked the Premier, who, he said, had cut down a requisition for more rolling stock sent in by the Railway Department. Then he turned to the Commissioner of Railways, whom he pictured as sitting on two stools. On the one side there was the autocratic Engineer-in-Chief, and on the other a Ministry whom he permitted to cut down his estimates until the whole railway system was in jeopardy. Other speakers waxed facetious on reports of the Telegraph Department, which blamed breakdowns on the overland telegraph line to "climatic conditions." This line had now been erected for many years, and was in need of repairs. Storms on the southern coast were apt to impair its efficiency. The postal system was also animadverted on. The meeting aimed at making a strong impeachment against the Government. The West Australian newspaper declared that neither the public nor the departments appeared able to make useful suggestions likely to relieve the congestion. Another meeting at Fremantle followed, and was addressed by leading residents in a moderate and sensible tone.
Sir John Forrest replied to the strictures of the Perth meeting in his usual vigorous terms. He regretted that his critics did not take the trouble to acquaint themselves with the facts, and said that since the introduction of the Loan Bill of 1894 (upon which the requisition referred to by Mr. Wilson was made), wherein the sum of £174,000 was provided for rolling stock for both opened and new lines of railway, he had no recollection whatever of having refused to provide funds for additional rolling stock. But he believed that the difficulties would be quickly removed, and pointed out that orders then out for rolling stock were valued at upwards of £300,000 over and above the money available by vote of Parliament. Mr. Venn, the Commissioner of Railways, indignant at the criticisms
