BLAZING THE TRACK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 254, 26 April 1912, Page 8

BLAZING THE TRACK.

dm. oii,':;t:i <>k ins great task. Dr. Gilruth, the new Administrator , of the Northern Territory, and formerly . Chief Veterinarian of New Zealand, was interviewed in Sydney prior to his departure for his new post. He said that j he had unbounded faith in the future , of the north, but recognised that he had , one of the most dillicult pioneering tasks , in the world in front of him. The Ter- f ritory was no place to dump the settler \ ahead of developmental works. There would be plenty of room for him, though, I along the blazed track, "and I," he said, i "am going up to blaze the track." ( About the productivity of the Terri- < lory no man who had had any experience 1 of it. could have the least doubt. There ' were immense areas of fertile land with- I out people, stock or even fences. Count- f in» in sill the white people, all the cattle, all the horses, all the pigs, there was not, one domesticated animal to the square mile. Much of tht land was not even surveyed. In days gone bv a square was drawn on the map, and that was declared to be the area leased. As to the prospects of production, it had been demonstrated that cotton, nee, tea, sisal hemp and other tropical growths were adapted, but it was a question whether under white labor conditions Australia could successfully compete, as far as cotton was concerned, with other countries unless machinery such as cot-ton-picking machines could be worked. If these machines did prove a success., then the cotton industry should be a' very profitable one. The Territory might also turn out to he one of the great granaries of Australia. The wheat would have to be a different variety from that J grown in the south—perhaps the same] sort as was grown in India. If wheat could be produced in that country, as it! was, why not in the Territory, too? For | the present, however, cattle and sheep would have to be the mainstay, and he intended to devote early attention to I the regulation, and, if possible, the extermination of tick'in cattle, and so rid tho Territory of its greatest scourje. THE SMALL HOLDER. The new Administrator was emphatic I upon the maintenance of the leasehold j system l , and upon the first call of the I small holder to the consideration of the i Government, "The more small settlers we can encourage to go there the more/ we will be pleased," he said, "for the' more valuable will the country be to: j Australia as an asset and for 'defence, i Every effort will be made by the Agri- j cultural Department on its experimental farms to demonstrate what can best and most economically be produced by the comparatively small settlers." But they would, of course, encourage pastoralists also to take up the land that was purely suited for pastoral purposes. He be-, lieved that in the neighborhood of the ' Mac Donald Ranges, which he intended to visit as soon as he got things properly organised, there were huge areas weil suited for sheep-breeding, Horse-breed-ing and pig-raising should also be valuable adjuncts to other industries. The Territory was on magnificently watered country. There were at least' six rivers up which coastal steamers had been a hundred miles, and with a locking system the Roper and other rivers might easily be made navigable for a much farther distance. '•' WHITE AUSTRALIA " POLICY. "Is it a white man's country? Well, among the men who have been there for years—£o years, some of them—l saw a greater proportion of healthy, vigorous specimens than one would see elsewhere. There is, as far as I could ascertain, no other tropical disease than malaria. If people live as the conditions warrant—frequently in the open »ir, plenty of exercise, work in the cool hours, rational clothing—they will get along just as well there, I think, as< in the temperate zones. If the British troops could go to India at the time of the Mutiny, and beat the black man on his own heath, with none of the scientific i j assistance to living such as we have to> ; day, it will be strange if they cannot i adapt themselves to the better condi-

tion* in the Territory. If we get the notion that people, can't live in the Territory, don't forget that there are plenty of others willing to try."