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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1015, 5 March 1912, Page 2

A cablegram from Sydney last week stated that Prolessor Gilruth, Administrator of the Northern Territory, in an interview, said he first intended to demonstrate what could be profitably produced in the Territory, and then secure the right kind ol immigrants. He will spare no efforts to prove that the White Australia policy is sound and capable of full fruition. Some idea of the importance of the task that has been undertaken by Professor Gilruth is set forth in a recent issue of the Sydney Daily Telegraph. The appointment of Professor Gilruth, at a salary of /X 750 a year and liberal travelling expenses, to administer the Northern Territory, indicates some conception of the greatness of the task which the Federal Government has to lace in that part of the Commonwealth. It may at once be congratulated upon its choice of an Administrator. It any man available at such a comparatively modest figure might be expected to succeed in such a difficult position it is the one who has been selected for it. Professor Gilruth is evidently actuated by ambition to do some lasting work of a national character. For in a mete monetary sense /,175c a year at Port Darwin, as measured against the comforts it will bring, is not equal to /Tooo in Melbourne, and could, therefore, prove no temptation to a man of his abilities. He will have ample scope to gratily that laudable ambition, lor upon the development of the Territory committed to his charge the future of the whole Commonwealth largely depends. The main settlement is pastoral, yet, according to Dr Woolnough, “including horses, cattle, and even the chickens, it contains only about one domesticated animal per square mile,” The human population, exclusive of aborigines, is about one to 150 square miles, and three-lout tbs of that is coloured. Yet the Territory has had a settled government for nearly half a century, and over three and a-half millions of money, borrowed on the credit of South Australia, have been spent in efforts to colonise it. There has been ample protection for anyone who chose to go there, as with the British power at his back no foreign aggressor could interfere with the settler, or make him afraid. Still the territory remains practically empty. The mining rush which some years ago caused capital to pour into the country, along with Government money spent on railways, jetties, and other public works, brought a few thousands of white men and Asiatics, and the dwindling residue of that population, with the Government officials, constitute

the present community. Apart from the officials, most of the whites live directly or indirectly out of the Chinese. The exclusion Act, however, prevents the recruiting of Asiatics, whose numbers are consequently on the decrease, and the white element diminishes in proportion. That is the position Professor Gilruth is sent to the Territory to cope with.

Our Whaugarei contemporary publishes details of an accident to a Maori recently, which .ended fatally. According to the evidence at the inquest it was stated that when the medical man was summoned to attend the unfortunate sufferer, Jhe replied. “Oh, Christ, send him to the hospital.’’ The man was conveyed the next day from the Hukerenui district by train to the hospital at Whangarei and the first medical attention he received was after arrival at the institution, when it was found that he was suffering from a fracture at the base of the skull. Our contemporary wants to know why the following query was not asked at the inquest, “Was the death of the native Waiomio accelerated in any way by the fact that the injured man lay for a period of nearly eighteen hours without receiving medical attention ?’’ Surely steps should be taken by the authorities to get an explanation from a member of an honoured profession as to why he refused to attend the sufferer. The iact of the injured person being a Maori should not prejudice the medical man. We commend our contemporary for the steps it is taking in ihe matter.

In a question in Parliament, addressed to the Minister for Railways, Mr K. Newman suggests that season tickets available for one mouth should be issued at the same rate in proportion as those issued for three, six or twelve months, and also that tourist excursion tickets should be issued for second-class passengers as well as for first-class. Mr Newman notes that at present a person who can afford to pay for a season ticket in one lump sum saves uearly one-fourth of the value of the annual ticket as compared with the person who can only afford to pay tor his ticket quarterly ; also a first-class passenger can procure excursion tickets enabling them to travel tor four weeks over the whole of the North or South Island railways for £ 6, but second-class tickets are not issued at a proportionate reduction for the benefit of workers of the Dominion desiring to make similar use of the railways. We may remark that Mr Newman is not a Radical or even a Labour M.P., but belongs to the greedy, grasping Opposition —and yet — and yet —he is trying to better the privileges of the second-classers !