HUGH LAND DEAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1233, 16 April 1914, Page 3

HUGH LAND DEAL.

At the present time a matter of some importance to the future settlement of Australia is under consideraion by the Federal Government. More immediately it concerns the Minister of External Affairs. The question to be solved by Mr Glynn is whether ho shall grant to an English company a large area of grazing country—roughly estimated to contain 20,000 square miles—in Northern Australia, between the fifteenth and seventeenth parallels of latitude. The company annlying to the Minister is known as the Union Cold Storage Company, and its headquarters are in London. If its negotiations witli tho Federal Government ar© successful it will acquire a huge tract of land stretching from the Northern Territory westwards towards Kimberley, in the northern part of Western Australia. It is said to be. good grazing land, most of it watered by the Victoria River. As regards the Western Australian portion of the proposed holding, the company has already obtained a footing. It has leased a fairly large area until lately held by Messrs Copley and Co., and is also said to hold concessions from Messrs Emanuel and Forest, and from Messrs Connor, Du rack and Doherty. Whether its pastoral property will extend into the Northern Territory is a question that is now the subject of negotiation. Mr Glynn has had numerous consultations with the representatives of the company now in Australia, and with tho director of tho Northern Territory (Dr. Gilruth). No settlement has yet boon arrived at, though an announcement on the sub ject may he expected at any time. The Secretary of External Affairs (Mr Atlee Hunt) stated that tho company referred to was well known to the Department. It was an English company of good financial standing. So far from its having anything to do with the American Beef Trust—an allegation that has been freely made in connection with the negotiations now going on—it was entirely foreign to that body, being controlled from London, possessing properties in Russia and Argentine, and having no connection whatsoever with the American octopus.