The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1908. AUSTRALIA’S GREAT PROBLEM

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2080, 4 January 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1908. AUSTRALIA’S GREAT PROBLEM

A very interesting pap; r was read by the Anglican Bishop of Carpentaria before the Victorian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, at Alclbouriic, on the 13th September last, and has now been published in pamphlet form. Thcro are two questions of prime interest in connection with Xortlieru Australia. First, is it suitable fur settlement? and second, is it suitable for white settlement? The Bishop deals with both these questions. By Northern Au-Tralia the Bishop means all north of lit - 20(h pirallel of latitude. stating that once you get south <i| that line the cool reason is more .strongly marked than north oi that hue. Tin.' area of Australia north of (Ids line is about ball a million square miles, or, roughly, five times the size of Xew Zealand. It is land not subject, like more southern -Australia, to droughts. The rainy mouths are January, February, and March, and for practical purposes the other nine months are rainless. Even the inland westerly districts, that are .sometimes subject, to .slight droughts, could be easily provided with water if rcserviorswere constructed. Along the eastern coast ot Queensland in this district runs a coastal range going up to 1000 feet in height". In some places ties range is near the sea ; in other places rich flats lie between the range and the sea. Then there is a. mountsinous tableland extending inland 100 miles, and oil this- tableland are several thriving townships and much mineral wealth. AVo.st of tins tableland, and extending to the Go., of Carpentaria, lies a vast alluvial plain. Most of it is suitable for cattle. There is also good pastoral country adjoining tho Queensland border, perhaps as largo an area as the North Island of New Zealand. In the north-west, also, there is good cattle country. The northern coast is swampy, and should grow rice in abundance. It may therefore lie assumed that there is a vast country suitable for settlement in Northern Australia —a country tint will rear cattle, and will produce tropical and sub-tropical products. Much of the high uplands have a coldish winter, and are suitable for the products of temperate climates. The second question is, can the white min make this rich land his home? The Bishop has been living in the territory for twenty-two years and he has never had fever; lie is strong and well, and tho elimato has not injured him. He states, however, that whilst men who work in the open air, and take plenty of exercise, and do net indulge in alcohol, cm stand the climate, women and children do not thrive well. The lowlands also, that are suitable for rice, cotton, sugar, coffee, and other tropical and Kiib-tropic.il productions, are not suitable even fur men. What, then, is to lie done ?

The Bishop says there are two alien! ilives ; country is not suited lor white settlement, or (2) to so arrange the conditions of life, at a heavy pecuniary cost to the rest of Australia, that white men may be induced to live there. The conditions he refers to are—(a) T'he supporting and fostering of northern trades and industries artificially. (Id the keeping of an army of officials who would not lie wanted in temperate Australia, (<• > the subsidising of steamships to carry freight at a lion-paying rate, (d) Lie' building of strategic railways. Will tie' Com moil wealth pay the cost? Ami if tho cost is paid, can the white mail live and rear his family on the tropical flats? The Bishop docs not think so. If the Commonwealth were to come to the conclusion that it could not be wholly a white man’s country, then the Bishop says, they might get colored labor from Eastern British possessions, and that would lead to the employ men t of many whites as leaders of the unskilled laii tii’rs. ns mechanics, engineers, overseers, clerks, and so on. The Bishop is anxious that Northern Australia should lie. a white man’s country, but lie does not believe it possible. He is quite unprejudiced, and ll is no end but that of truth to serve in the statements he has made. He points out that in all the Northern territory belonging to Sontlt Australia and AYest Australia there are at present 2000 whites. There are about 60,000 blacks in the Northern territory, but little lias been done to make them industrial settlers. They are, he says, capable of being made good settlers. At Yarrabah, near Cairns,

and carrying on a large tishing industry. And ho says the Presbyterian mission at Mupoon and the Lutheran at Cape Bedford are also doing good work. Generally, however, the natives have been badly treated. They have been driven oil their land, and no compensation has beoa given to them, and they have not been taught or civilised, save what the various churches have done for them. There are (it),000 Australians that might, be a nucleus of a settlement of the Northern Territory, but they have been looked upon as if they were will! animals, and ofLen treated as such. The problem of the settlement of this Northern Territory is a serious one. Port Darwin is 100 miles nearer to China than it- is to Melbourne, and Formosa, the now prosperous Japanese colony, is 800 miles nearer Port Darwin than .Melbourne._ Further, Thursday Island is only 112 miles from Dutch New Guinea, and 800 miles from German New Guinea, whilst Thursday Island is 2230 miles from Melbourne. The Northern Territory cannot be allowed to remain idle. What is to be clone? That is tin l question the Bishop puts, and he says others will reply: “You make no use of the country yourselves ; why should you grudge it to others?” In these days of searching for new lands for settlement, what reply will tho Commonwealth give? There is plenty of talk, but no action iii dealing with this question. Mr. Denkin can make line speeches; can he lead Australia in the way it should go to utilise the Northern Territory? The Bishop also points out that the la ml is unprotected, and could bo seized by anyone, and ho concludes his weighty paper by saying:—“lf wo are too much occupiedin amusement to have time to think, too lethargic to act, and too blind to recognise the valuo of discipline and self-sacrifice, then we shall have to give way. not unjustly, to those who are more in earnest than ourselves.”