NORTHERN TERRITORY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4653, 25 January 1924, Page 3

NORTHERN TERRITORY.

“A COUNTRY FOOLED WITH.”

FEDERAL MEMBER'S WARNING. Mr Cook, M.H.R., who was a member 01 the sectional committee of the I’ederal Public Works Committee vhich recently circumnavigated the Common wealth, has returned to Melbourne impressed with the possibilities of the Northern Territory, but disappointed with the past failures to open up the country. He said that business was veiy dull at Darwin, v, here the population had been considerably reduced. Vesty’,s meat works, ■which had cost £950,000, had been idle for more than a year, as a Jesuit of low prices and industrial troubles. Sonie of the workmen had r :ceived up to £7O a month. “ The country has been fooled with, ,-nd every additional year of muddling v ill bring us closer to disaster,” said '-.!>• Cook. “If we do not act, others may. The settlement of the north is :> gigantic problem, but must be faced with courage. In .its present state it is a menace to our national existence. What is needed is co-oper-ation between the Commonwealth and the States in evolving sounder land laws and providing water supplies, railways, roads, and ports. A proprossive posicy will convert this large ‘tax-eating’ territory of the north into self-supporting provinces that w>]] contribute largely to the wealth of the nation.”