NORTH AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 93, 14 January 1935, Page 9

NORTH AUSTRALIA

Plans For Development Melbourne, January 4. Lessees of pastoral lands to the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria in North Australia have combined to take advantage of the plan of the Commonwealth Government for the development of the north by means of chartered companies. A tender has been submitted by a prospective company, comprising most of the important leaseholders, and this is now being considered by a sub-committee of the Cabinet. Tenders for the development of the north by chartered companies were first invited in July, 1933, and although some proposals were submitted, finality was not reached. The areas over which the Ministry offered chartered companies control were the area south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and including the Barkly Tablelands and the area around Victoria River, and including Wyndham if the Government of Western Australia would co-operate in the project. Western Australia refused to cede the necessary land, and this part of the project was abandoned. The chartered companies were offered substantial concessions, as they would have every facility for the construction of railways, tramways, wharves, and other works, and any goods required for such developmental purposes would be admitted either at a low ratq of duty or duty free. Exemption from land tax would also be granted for some years. Two considerations make the Commonwealth Government anxious to develop the north of Australia. It is considered that the best means of making North Australia useful is by means of cattle stations: secondly, it is lielioyed that tiie export of chilled beef from Australia has excellent prospects, and given a port in the gulf Australian producers could successfully challenge Argentine competition in Great Britain. Chilled beef from Northern Australia would arrive in England between May and August, and so would be unlikely to compete with meat produced in Englund,

A waterfall Sft. high is to form one of the features in a roof garden now being built on the top of a skyscraper in New York. Borrowers who keep books over time from the Croydon and Surrey Ptffihc libraries pay, on an average, over ±lO6 a month in fines.