BEAUTIFUL DARWIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1920, Page 10

BEAUTIFUL DARWIN.

JUSTICE EWING'S VIEWS. PINE CATTLE COUNTRY. "The town of Darwin is one of the most picturesquely situated and beautiful places in Australia." This is the opinion of Mr. Justice Ewing, who has been investigating matters in connection with the administration of the Northern Territory. "The harbor at Darwin is a very fine one," said the judge, when interviewed at Sydney, "but facilities for dealing with cargo seem to have been designed to place every possible obstacle that could be conceived in the way of cheap and effective handling." When Mr, Justice Ewing arrived in Darwin he was met with very coolly, but he proceeded with the commission; and, by degrees, the people who had previously passed a resolution declaring that they would give no assistance, altered their opinions, and ultimately gave him the most cordial support. "Going to the Northern Territory with my mind full of second-hand information about it," said the judge, "I was greatly astonished to And such a fine type of English-speaking people inhabiting the place. There are many mixed nationalities. The great majority of these are so-called Greeks, who live under conditions that make one feel they are not the best type of settlers. The Chinese population is large, and the largest businesses are owned by them. "I arrived at Darwin at the very worst time of the yeaT, but the main thing I have against the Territory, from a personal point of view, is the continuous oppressive heat, without great variation day and night. The only relief one got was after a very severe thunderstorm and a downpour of rain. This was useful if it came after 5 o'clock in the afternoon, but if the change took place in the early part of the day the conditions became almost unbearable when the sun came out again. The mosquitoes were maddening, but I am told that they are not troublesome to any great extent at other times of the year. It is not their size or their numbers that are formidable—it is their effective sting and the lasting effects of it." The judge travelled as far back as the Catherine river and about 200 miles inland through the mineral belt of the country. From any other point of view than its mineral possibilities, of which the judge did not profess to know anything, the country appeared to him to be quite useless. But he was informed on very good authority that there was an immense area, beginning about 50 miles back from where he was, and extending from the West Australian border right across to the borders of Queensland, and back to the Gulf of Carpentaria, which was amonngst the finest cattle-raising country in Australia. As far as sheep were concerned, the people of whom the judge inquired did not seem to think very highly of the prospects. This belt of country includes the famous Barclay tablelands. The only other country of which the judge heard anything was on the Alligator river. Information given to him by some of the mounted patrol who went on the John Alice to see the land was to the effect that it was very fine country from a cattle-raising point of view—the best, perhaps, in Australia. The judge says that one of the greatest drawbacks to permanent white settlement is the domestic trouble. It is almost impossible for persons with limited means to get adequate assistance. The Chinese have a ring and they know how to work it.

Under existing condition?, he says, it is impossible for white women n do the work expected of them, nr.4 look after their children, nnd until the domestic help problem is solved Darwin will be a cruel place for a white Toman.