PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 85

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

"IN AUSTRALIAN TROPICS." I am in hopes that some day there will appear an ideal reading book, or seriee of reading books, which might be called Empire Readers, in which all parts of the Empire will receive adequate treatment. Indeed, do yov know what I should have?— three sets, embracing • (a) the history and geography (commercial and jwlitical) of the Empire, (b) of the world, (c) of Australasia in greater detail, and {<]) a purely literary set. But I am not going into the reader question just now. My thoughts, however, went that way as I was reading "In Australian Tropics," by Alfred Searcey. who for many years was one of the Custom House 'officers at Port Darwin, for this book contains matter that would give many interesting lessons for a set of Empire readers. I am sure tliat many of us have no idea of the area, climate, production, etc., of many parts of our Empire. Take the Northern Territory^ for instance, of which Port Darwin — I suppose, strictly speaking, we should say Palmerston — is the capital. Learn a lesson in geo- | graphy — map before you, of course. The Northern Territory is bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea, on the south by the 26th parallel of south latitude, o. the ea^t by the 138 th meridian, of east longitude, ' and on the wie&t by the 129 th meridian of- east longitude. It covers about 524,000 square miles, thus equalling about five of our New Zealands, j lies almost wholly within the tropics, and has about 2000 miles of seaboard. And its productions? These will come later on. When was Australia first discovered? That lam not going to worry about ; but whether or not De Gonneville, a Frenchman, fiom Honfluer, was the discoverer of Terra Australia in- 1503 (Henry Vll's reign, when the opening up of the East ajid the West set Europe aJI agog), we are pretty sure that in 1605 (Jamee U& redgn, and the year of the Gunpowder Plot) Torres sailed through Torres Strait ; and w-e know, too, that in 1644, when

the Civil War was bemg wage in England — a iva.r which resulted iv the execution of Charles I and the rise of the British navy - under Cromwell — Tasman skirte<? the north an-d the northwest coasts of Australia. Th« French, Spanish, and Dutch, you see, were very busy in those days in territorial and commercial expansion ; the English, however, were as busily engaged in fighting for political freedom as for anything, else. The expansion came later, and largely at the expense of the pioneering nations. Let us look to it that

Rations rising now do not do to us as we jlii to others in those days. AN APPRECIATION, AND WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN The author writes with great adimirajtion of the sea-dogs -who in those days ploughed their way througn unknown seas fwitl such marvellous intrepidity^ and snakes several references to Dutch visits it© the Northern Territory. In 1628, the year when Charles called together his JEhird Parliament, which drew' up the jPetitaon oi Bight — it is just as*well to {know what we were doing when other £ations had co active a colonial policyfa Dutch «xpeditiaa left the Zuyder Zee {with the idea of forming a settlement on jKhe coast of New Holland," but the wreck fof the ship, -which was one of the many, {tragic inddante in the early history pf ■North Australia, ended the project. 'Perhaps the Dutch in Java- and the other Dutch East Indies made no attempt (to open up North Australia. Why? Our ambassador at the Hague, Ihe political capital of the Netherlands, reported to Charles II that the Dutch knew well pi ifot existence of a aonthem continent, .Which was marked on their maps as iNew Holland, but discouraged any ex-

ploration. The Dutch Ea6t India Com-pan-y, he heard, "had long since forbidden, and under the greatest- penalties, any further attempts at discovering that continent, having already more trade than they can turn to account, and fearing some more populous nation of Europe might make great establishment of trade in some of ttheee unknown regions, which might ruin or impair what they already have in the Indies." Supposing, how.ever, that they had settled North Australia as €hej hare settled Java, we should probably now have in North- Australia a large black populat : on as in Java, producing and selling to the white mail. There would be no Union Jack floating there, and there would be no cry of "A White Australia." This is one of the many "might have beens." i tvmanßmv ho yuaarav Tb there an odd map in the British Museum -with the spelling Aurifera instead of Arafara? There were early ■visits to the coast, and it is ne likely as sot that Aurifera (gold-bearing) is the true spelling. THE DINGO. Australia, as you know, is the land of pouched animals, but the dingo is one of

the exceptions. Any reason for it? Many, T e&ys the author, think it has descended from tihe 4< chow" dog, or something akin to it. ".When it is remembered that communications took place between the Chinese and the Portuguese so many centuries ago, it might reasonably be surmised that the animal from which the dingo has sprung was landed on the north coast by some of the old navigators. Dampier says in his diary : *We Baw no sort of animal nor any tracks of beasts ' but once, and that seemed to be a beast | as big as a great mastiff <bog- He may j have struck a number of kangaroo tracks." SEARCY AS A CUSTOMS OFFICER. It was well known to those familiar with the Eastern Archipelago and North Australia that the Malays paid; annual vifite to the north coast of Australia, and had carried off "millions of pounds ' < ! wort* of spoil in tie shape of trepang, ! pearls, pearl-shell, tartoke-sheli, and tim- j ber. The South Australian Government ' having control of the Northern Terri- ; tory, and being put to considerable ex- | ' pease in administering it, thought that , these Malays ehouid pay duties on what ■ they carried off, and on the tobacco, ' rice, spirits — arrack mainly, — etc., they gave the northeia? natives in exoha-Bge for labour -and produce, so sent Mr Seaecyt j to collect the dues. As faT back as > 1803 Capi/aan Flinders estimated that the ', Rajah of Bom sent from Macassar about ' 60 proas, .each about 25 touts, and the j whole carrying about 1000 men-. One or j two proas carried email braes gurus got j from the Dutch, and all the men were : armed with muskets and' creeses, or dag- { gers. The principal article of trade was a sea-lug, or sea-cucumber, called beche-de-mer, or trepang. This is got by diving in "three to eight fathoms ot water, and where it is abundant a man will bring up eight or 10 at a time. The I mode of preserving it is this : The animal j is split down on one side, boiled, and ! pressed with a weight of stones, then ! stretched 1 open by strips of bamboo, dried in the snn, and afterwards by smoke, when it is fit to put awaj. in bags, but requires frequent exposure to the sun.". There a!re two kinds, the black and the gray, the former being double the value of the latter. i And here I'll ,*op and give a little | more on the author, his book, and his subject next week. | You will remember that some months [ ago I drew your attention to "We of the ' Never-never." Well, this book is equally j interesting — indeed, more so in many re- \ spects, but wanting in the literary grace ] and refinement so noticeable in Mrs (■hum's book. By-the-bye, Mr Guran was one of Mr Searcy's closest chums. , j