"HEAVY LIABILITY"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 66, 10 December 1937, Page 5

"HEAVY LIABILITY"

Aasn.-

Northern Territory of Australia DEVELOPMENT PROBLEM

(By Triegrapb

('opvrieht.)

(Received 10 8.45 a.m.) CANBERRA, Dec. 9. A report on the Northern Territory by two investigators, Messrs. W. Payne and J. Fletcher, which was tabled in the House of Representatives, emphasised that too mueh cannot be expected of the Territory and, that very little agricultural development can be expected. The grazing areas in the interior have produced great wealth in the aggregate, but very small returns per acre. Much of the vacant land is useless and is as fully occupied as it ever will be. The Northern Territory, according to the report, is a heavy liability. The deficit for the past financial year was £611,439, and the total value of production was £499,110. Ih 26 years the Commonwealth has spent £15,000,000, and the population in the meantime has increased by only 2144. The investigators suggest a change in the system of land tenure and administrative methods. They recommend a change from cattle-raising to sheep-breeding, the construction of two railway systems costing £3,500,000, the abolition of income-tax and tariff dues, as a result of which production will increase to £4,000,000 and the white population to 40,000 within the uext 25 years. On December 3 last year the Australian Government announced the appointment of a committee of three members to investigate land tenures and xnatters of general policy in North Australia. The committee was expected to start its investigations last March. The work of the committee, it was pointed out by the Sydney Morning Herald, appeared to overlap that of the Sheplierd Committee of 1934 and the development which resulted from the work of that body. The Sheplierd Committee investigated the conditions of every pastoral lease in the Territory and particularly those of the so-called "consolidated" leases under the Act of 1924, with their resumption and subdivision rights. The problems t0 be investigated by tbe latest body were whether Government resumption rights should be enforced, whether subdivision "dummying" was taking place, whether stocking conditions were being pvaded, and what treatment lessees were receiving compared with similar lessees elsewhere.