FREE FARMS OFFERED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 178, 14 December 1912, Page 3

FREE FARMS OFFERED.

. IX AUSTRALIA'S VACANT NORTH. POLICY OF THE FEDERAL LABOR GOVERNMENT. . An official statement-has been issued bj- the Australian Minister for External Affairs with regard to the steps being taken to secure settlement in the Northern Territory (says the Melbourne Age). The board appointed locally to classify land has dealt with an area on the Daly river, which has been surveyed into twenty-six farms, varying in size from .200 acres to (120 acres. The land is about 130 miles by sea from Darwin, and 174 miles by land, transport over portion of Iho latter distance being provided by rail. Settlers will be able to take up the land free of cost, not even survey fees being charged. Selectors are to enter upon occupation within eight months of securing the land; they must establish a home within two years of allotment; reside on their farms for at least six months in each year; clear and cultivate ten acres during the first two years, twenty acres during the next three years, and another twenty acres during the following two years, so that in seven years they must have at least fifty acres cleared. During the first three years a substantial fence must be erected around each farm.

Selectors will be provided with transport facilities by means of Government steamers, M'hich will ply regularly between Darwin and the settlement on the river. Fares and freights will be on as low a scale as possible. The Government will provide fencing, building material, implements and stock at cost price, and on long terms. In order to provide them with an opportunity for earning money settlers will be given the opportunity of making roads and carrying out other public works in the district. The land now.being offered for settlement can be irrigated from the Daly river, which is navigable along the. frontage of some of the blocks at ordinary tides. Although rainfall records have not been kept, it is estimated that the annual fall is about CO inches,'and throughout the dry season heavy dews are frequent. According to officia' reports, the land has proved to be eminently suitable for the production of maize, two crops a year having heen harvested during the last three years. Tobacco, sugar-cane, cotton, sweet potatoes citrus fruits, | bananas, paw paw apples, mangoes, and other tropical fruits have been grown satisfactorily. The surroundings are' also' suitable for fowls, goats and pigs. The areas have been made larger than the original surveys, and it is hoped, if this initial effort at development proves successful, that other parts of the district will soon be occupied. Plans arc being prepared, and it is hoped to be able to fix February 20 next as the time for closing applications. The Land-Board is now dealing with an area of land in ilie vicinity of Pine Creek railway, about seventy ;mile3 from Port Darwin.