WHITE WOMAN'S HELL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 197, 4 August 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHITE WOMAN'S HELL.

DRUDGERY AND WHITE ANTS TERRITORY DENOUNCED. A £40,000 PUMPKIN! The Northern Territory, about which there has been such a persistency ot laudatory opinions, that tho voices ot the few trying to deny it have been drowned in the babble is set before the eyes of many as the land of promise in Australia. Its neglect has been so paramount that it has come to be regarded as a sort of Cinderella State, ready to blossom into radiant beauty when the Commonwealth comes to a sense of its parental responsibilities and gives a touch of the fairy wand of suitably administration. , • To hear a woman who has med in tie Northern Territory for over two years condemn it as a white woman_s hell" is rather disconcerting to those whose eves have been lifted towards the SSS Sith blind Tins a travcl'rd Anstwlum, «ent. to the ncrth imbued with the idea that tins unpeopled area of Australia s tropical zone would h»v* all the compensations of ease and scenio' Charin that n\ alv^ 3 tiopical life. She was b'tteHydmppointcd, and yet she tasted ot the best th on9 l: s h a h littTe puzzled at wholesale condemnation, and ventures torcmiw Uc of the glowing accounts r eM, ana tbe favourabe opinions ot • a lK)ut the present- prosperity and the future outlook of the Northern TeiHto lies, and the vest rubl,lsh", she answers with a decision that having tha last northern port in Australia. The visitors are spoon-ful . y the» Government, jwst as ,a fe\\ cattle are stall-fed, to be exhibited as tL product of a land that cannot g !°? enough fodder to feed goats. The vs. tors, too, always come m the ar/ season; W know nothing of th-t w-ere *press oitf. aS "The women seem to do notlnng, est\£.,d<re \ few of them play tenLee the women to do their own «o,h. r- w ' ii l ,^7«eSa^»s "t'efo-'r month. Those who can afford Usssfg does a job, ovcry housekeeper .TtSle herself, and imagine it over must tackle ' „ated iron house, a wood hie, na < oiu g t n ,, ex-resident condemns the NN nit M.'sSM down to iV"'"lio (hose iMt'ons igbasa C ''Stf;Va°'''whelfail.heehi,dren a ,. Q * hale fellow well met, is eonsidis all coloured, hut the colour line so strictly drawn that it is onl> « J tremel'y brave or degenerate male ever steps over it. WHITE-ANT CURSE. /«WSF?K£SS .„,ts " sbe continued. It stems th those tould he exterminated tie most parmonnt discomforts of the iron houses are due to . • .-d'tr«,. Som m l tubs! d Xnt'se^ Kjuntodth,ir holdings with palm and tropical trees, but one by onethe/ •ir« falling, ridd'ed from root to tip with white ants. There.is fjjtto • £ cent avenue of palms in the Botancc Gardens which looks well m a pictiu , • but the trees are all hollow, and it is * mere matt."!' of tune as to when they shall topple c'.< wn. -Tho poor, deluded sott.ers who came inspired with th,- notion ot delvi„.r a . living out of the soil have sold what thev could, but mostly abandoned their hohVngs, and are hanging round Darwin doing jobs on tho railways and Government buildings, with only one object in view— that of getting away. ()no of tho greatest events is when cTat** of green vegetables arrives from a Chines, garden at I'me Crook, •>.) miles awav. The white women Mivade Chinatown, and snatch the green treasures as they are earned into tho consignee. Ownership is usually a tiling f O V. the most adroit with tli.e fattest purse: the richer do not scruple to offer bigger prices for what their poor- ,• ' vistiM-s l ave been smart enough ! o snatch and bold. Vegetables are so scarce that tbe housekeepers w' 11 cook any green tiling that grows, provided it is not poeolious. »T'.| on (1 overflowing with niuk and ! iti' v is - opposed to be beyond 't. and ■. r 1 n*>r>'the cattle it raises are prime!„.,kipi a-Inmis. But- it is oil." of th- ... •, 1!" i!t necoiop , 'shmeuls to go* i,. ~i I l ' ! 0 Creek. One iim-d have '•< h sen which to cfirry the , jt|t( ~ tl ! with every dro!» of wile'" niM 111 I I •' man and bea>t. The idea of a woman «*etting out on iiicli a journey

' i- -v .*■ - is looked upon as preposterous, and while she is to'd that she will be acquainted of the fact as soon as an opportunity arises, she never gets beyond the railway station, unless she is the wife of one of the settlers going inwards to live. "The stock raised on these lands beyond Pme Creek can only be travelled during the comparatively short season between the wet and the dry periods. The heavy rajns flood all the creeks and streams, so that they are impassable. It is when those waters are subsiding that the stock travels, because a little later the streams dry up so rapidly that the cattle would perish on their way with thirst. "This rain causes an abnormal growth of rank, coarse grass, in which the horses revel until they are blown out like balloons. As riding is the chief joy of the place, one must necessarily ride them, although it seems as if one is sitting 011 a barrel that churns out foam with the least exertion. " For the rest of the year the horses are stall-fed with imported grain at 16s a bushe'. One needs an income to :n----dulge in the luxury of a horse. EVERYONE NERVY. V "Everyone is nervy in the north, even to the children, who are described as we.edv, joyless mites, who don't knowhow to play," she continued. "The constant glare ca'uses the eyes to be screwed up and bloodshot. lledrimmed eyes are so common that they pass unnoticed. The harbour of Darwin has little beauty, and it is deserted except for the steamers 011 their way north and south, and the pearling luggers that used to come twice a month before the war. Extravagance, which has become to lie looked upon as an Australian attribute, is rampant in the north. Since the roads about Darwin are merely sandstone, and beyond are just bush tracks, motor cars arc a mere bagatelle to a few Government officials. Tho beautiful houses built for the Government officers not two years ago on massive concrete piles already show ample evidence of t-hc attention of tho white ants. Tho Batehelor Farm, which cost £40,T00, has been abandoned, after raising one pumpkn. Human life, too. is looked upon cheaply by the Government. A man was sent to gaol for seven years for deliberately shooting hi* wife dead, for no more evident reason than his own bad temper ad jangled nerves, and the same sentence was imposed 011 a youth who, fed up with the desolation, went 011 a wild jag and burnt down a Chinaman'* shanty valued at £2o. But perhaps the cruellest hardship of life in Darwvn is tho scarcity of water. The harassed householder has to depend 011 the blacklellow s drawing it (for all purposes), in kerosene tins from the well, whic'h is attached to nearly every house, from underground springs. 111 this place where bathing makes for comfort, the bathroom consists of an empty tub, barrel of water, and a large pannTkin. It is a point of honour with you to use as rttle water as possible. The most recent residences of the Government officials have been provided with a decent water supply and bath-houses. Again the joy of Government service: I'Yes. life is tolerable in and around Darwin for the servants of the Government," concluded this former Darwinian. " But this coddling of a favoured few birds of passage is not go- : n<r to make anything of the Northern Territory, nor will the greatly-talked-of railwav.' Tho place must first of aU he made iiv,cattle for the white women, because it is the place where white men need companionable help-mates. Minimise their domestic burdens by giving them some kind of help at .1 reasonable price, and life might be a little more tolerable, in spite of heat, gate snakes, sandflies, mosquitoes, and general lack of comforts. As it is now, i< neither Eastern nor Western, tor it has the comforts of ne'taer. and most of Iho disadvantages of both.