NORTHERN TERRITORY DEVELOPMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1917, Page 4

NORTHERN TERRITORY DEVELOPMENT.

. Sydney, July XI Quite a fluttet - has been eatisecl among, Federal politicians by a sworn statement, made for publication, by a Mr Randolph Bedford, a journalist, who takes a keen interest in Northern Territory affairs. Mr Bedford describes a conversation with Dr Gilruth, Administrator of the Territory:—“ Dr Gilruth said that the Territory was difficult to administer, and that on behalf of a syndicate, life had offered the Commonwealth for the purchase of the 1 Territory, and to spend within two years. I asked him how he proposed to govern the Territory in such an event, and he said it wduld be administered by a' company on the lines of tile British Chartered Company of South Africa. I said that was no good-to a White Australia. ...” Dr Gilruth, in reply, denied that the offer was made. He simply asked the Minister, Mr Glynn, how lie tlibught such an offer would be regarded. He liad no syndicate in mind, iior had he been approached by any person. It had been merely a casual conversation between the Minister and himself. Dr Gilruth added that he was as strong an advocate of a White Australia As was Mr Bedford. Mr Glyiiii, when in-fet-Vietygd, bbre Out’ Mr Gilruth’s statement. He said 'that such an offer would never have been entertained. 0£ course, the White Australia devotees, and the cranks wlio liowl interminably for State as against private enterprise, have got their teeth wfell into Mr Bedford’s Statement, and are worrying it furiously. Yet, even if such an offer had been formally made, there ivouid have been every justification for it. The Northern Territory, under present conditions, is a bottomless sidle for public money, but it is a fit place for neither merchant nor producer. The usefulness and authority of the Administrator are undermined t 6 the extent that lie is the badgferfed victim of politicians • gnd laboilr thiipnS, a target for fiiiy Writer to shoot at firfeni under the coyer of anonymity. Millions have befell spent upon it, and the country is still ilot a white ihati’s fcotintry. It never will amount to much uiidfer tlife present systeiii of development. \Vhat is going to happen here presently, when Australia will not be ■ able to throw millions abotii aihoiig her Utopian schemes ? Yet what might not be done here with the country: in the hands of a vigorous,-, efficient, and wefi’Orgamsed administration —< a