The problem of transportation is the problem of civilisation. National progress rests upon production – the full use of natural resources – and production and distribution determine trade and commerce, and profitable business ultimately regulates wages and governs the standard of living. At one time economists held that Commerce made transportation and controlled it. The accepted axiom today is that transportation determines commerce by encouraging or checking industrial growth. Not mileage, but the cost of carriage is the true commercial measure of distance. The traders who can reach the markets of the world most cheaply control the commerce of the world. Railways, roads, and rivers, are factors of the first magnitude in the industrial and social life of a nation, for unless transportation is available production in excess of the most elementary personal needs is useless and commerce impossible. The theory of efficient means of transit is reducing the unit in the cost of production. Increased production stimulates consumption, multiplies avenues of employment, and adds to private and national wealth from which the community draws daily sustenance.

Australia as a wealth producer

Australia is essentially a producing country. Public credit has been pledged for money to build railways and roads and make harbours in order to facilitate the development of resources and shipment of products on such an economic basis as will meet all costs, and leave the grower, carrier, and trader a margin of profit.