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Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1925, Page 2

An appeal to Australians to recogniso their responsibility to settle the interior territory of the continent was made by Sir David Gordon, a member of the Legislative Council of South Australia, in an address in Melbourne. He said Australia represented the most vulnerable prize in the Pacific seas. yet it was peopled by only 6.000,000 souls. The inland areas contributed appreciably to neither the wealth nor the population of the country. and Northern Australia was very little different from its state when tho Dutch explorers visited is in 1500. To-day its .successful occupation was the most pressing problem for Australians. This vast territory could not lie idle for much longer. If honest with themselves Australians must admit that it was their lack of imagination and enterpr.se which had postponed a policy of vigorous colonisation. As long as the present conditions in central Australia existed, they would be a weak spot in the armour of Australia as far as continued possession was concerned. He would not say that Australians had proved themselves unworthy of their magnificent heritage but they must )>estir themselves and fill the empty spaces which were a menace. “The first essential is to break down our great • distances.” added Sir David Gordon. “Isolation js fatal, Better facilities for c-om.

numication by land, sea and air must be provided, and full use made of natural resources. Commerce no longer governs transport, but the reverse, ant: every facility must be given the outback settlers. Complete the northsouth railway. Then build another east-west railway from the northern coastline of Queensland to the northwest coast of Australia. Until our continent is intersected by railways we shall he unable to say we arc doing our best to occupy our country and justify our posessron of it.

Commenting on a threat of a strike on the anthracite coalfields, the New York Outlook asked when Congress was likely to take notice of the matter. It recalls that an export and hard-working commission, after months of toil and expenditure, made specific suggestions for congressional action. Congress neither carried them out nor discussed them. Now the Federal Trade Commission (the other commission having given up the ghost) has published a full and enlightening report on the price of anthracite. Hut how and by whom is the attention of the now Congress to he awakened ? “The situation is an illustration of the difference between British and American methods. If the British Government appointed a commission on an important matter and it reported before long some member of Parliament would rise in his place at question hour and ask when legislation on the subject would bo submitted by the Ministry. He would probably he neatly side-stepped, mildly laughed at. and he told in effect to ho patient, and let the Government carry on its own business. But after this had happened two or three limes, a hill would he introduced, hacked by the Prime ; Minister and the party in power; it would ho debated; it would he acted on, one way or the other. Norv with us, people are often told informally that the Government is in favour of this or that bill, and is using its influence with the party leaders in Congress, hut there is no open and constitutional method provided for a liaison officer between the two branches of government. Facli system has its advantages doubtless; but one result of ours is that too often the valuable work of national commissions dies in congressional committee rooms. ’ ’