["Nor'-West Ports" (Letter to the Editor), The West Australian, Friday 08 July 1910, page 2]
NOR'-WEST PORTS.
To the Editor.
Sir.--Under the pretence of pointing out "a few inaccuracies" contained in my article on the Nor'-West ports, and offering to forfeit £100 if I can prove my statements, your correspondent, Mr. J. H. Ellery, is, I feel sure, merely modestly hinting at his desire to make a handsome donation to charity! In behalf of the sick and needy I thank him.
But I cannot oblige Mr. Ellery even to the extent of so much as qualifying my remarks. In stating that Cossack was preparing for death, I said something which I believe to be true. On the very face of things the passing of Cossack seems to be a logical consequence of the transference of the shipping to Point Sampson, and the connecting of the jetty with Roebourne by an expensive and up-to-date tramway. I saw Cossack three years ago, when the Minister for Mines and Railways was asked to have the line to Point Sampson built, and the impression I then gained from the residents--particularly in view of their anxiety that they should be compensated for the line going to Samson by a grant of town lots there, in lieu of those they held at Cossack--was that they realised that the full utilisation of that the full utilisation of that expensive jetty must rob the older port of the most important portion of its trade. Neither Roebourne nor the country behind it do business enough to require two ports within six or seven miles of each other, and I was at that time given clearly to understand that the coupling up of Sampsmon was desired; in order that by steamers loading and discharging alongside the jetty, the very heavy lighterage charges between the ships and Cossack might cease. Going there again only a fortnight ago I found the people of Roebourne and Cossack resigned to the Roebourne and Cossack resigned to the inevitable. They did not seem to baulk the fact that although Cossack may continue a sort of existence, its business life had been taken out of it. I" am not privy to Government secret, but I believe that many who hold lots as Cossack are still clamouring for the Governmnet to exchange them for lots at Sampson, and they feel that they are being unjustly treated, because the Government will not give them outright freeholds at the new port. If Cossack is not very seriously on the wane, why this frenzy to exhange valuable sites there for worthless patches of unimproved land at Samson. If the people now at Cossack intend to continue residing and working there, what do they want with land at despised Sampson? I am quite aware that there is not yet a "town" at Sampson, and that the provision of a water supply is a difficulty. But I also know that there is a good tramline from there direct to Roebourne, that whereas three years ago there was not a solitary building on the spot, there are now government buildings in course of erection, that a house for the Wharfinger is to be built there, that the agent for the shipping companies (who has been all his life in Cossack) intends to erect offices there and later will leave Cossack for residence' either at Roebourne or Sampson, that Mr. Connolly and Captain Irvine consulted at Cossack as to which of the 'State' buildings there could be transferred, and that a deputation which interviewed him at Roebourne asked for the provision of a water supply, and did not seem to have any doubts about getting it. Further, I imagine that if any of the Cossack people intend to make use of their lots at Sampson when they get them, they will be as anxious as the Government to utilise again the materials of such of their present buildings as are transferable. Mr. Ellery says that neither of the publicans at Cossack contemplates transferring his licence to Point Sampson. There are reasons why Mr. Ellery should know something on this point, but evidently he is not so well informed as he ought to be, or he would know that at least one of the publicans is already moving to get his landlord to apply for a transfer to Sampson, failing which he intends to apply for a new licence at the nascent township. The other hotel-owner may think that the patronage of the pearling luggers' crews during the few months of the lay-up season will keep his light flickering at Cossack, but there are others of a different opinion. It may be true that a lot at Point Sampson brought only £31 at auction, put has Mr. Ellery made any effort to find out what a Cossack lot is worth today? I am not in possession of official figures, but I do not think that the Point Sampson tramway has been a fiasco; I rather fancy that the Government are pleased with the returns they have received from it. In any case, it was not built with the idea that it alone would make copper mining boom. It was built because the Government realised the folly of leaving a very fine jetty isolated, and having no communication with the town of Roebourne, which it was built principally to serve.
Point Sampson jetty may bow down to the first cyclone that strikes it fully as Mr. Ellery says, but it has been very slow in realising the dire predictions of prophets in the past. This procrastination seems to have caused this gentleman some annoyance. It is very easy to imagine that men with interests in Cossack are reluctant to see any virtue in Point Sampson, and if such there be I earnestly counsel Mr. Ellery not to be misled by them--unless of course, his generosity prompts him to make another gift to charity. His cheque, I would suggest, should be made payable to you, and the distribution of it left to your discretion.
Yours, etc., VINDEX.
Perth, July 6.
