STILL ROOM ON THE EARTH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10146, 16 December 1910, Page 7

STILL ROOM ON THE EARTH.

600,000 SQUARE MILES OF EMPIRE OPENED UP. A tract of 600,000 square miles of Empire, hitherto believed to be unfit for the white man, is declared by Mr A. W. Canning, an Australian explorer, to be capable of supporting a groat white population. The land in question is the northterritory of Western Australia. "It is suitable for dairy work, for the growing of wheat, cotton, rice, sugar, and a.- tropical crops," Mr Canning says. "The average level of the land is 1200 ft above the sea. The climate is perfect." Mr Canning was deputed by the Government of Western Australia to make a "stock road" through the province in a region which was generally considered an impossible country.: He has completed this, and is now in London, a tall, slim man, with a face burnt brown by tlie sun, and crisp, curling hair turning to irongrey. As he stood in the offices of the Commonwealth of Australia, ho looked the typical blue-eyed pioneer of Empire. He did nob talk of adventures, though there must have been many perils on the way. He told the plain story of how he constructed a chain of wells from Wiluna (about 450 miles north of Perth) to the River Strut, near Kimberley.

"I was two years engaged on the job, and I have left wells right across for 800 miles, so mat there is sufficient to water stock, and an immense area is opened up. Many of these wells will yield more than 7000 gallons per hour. They are, on the average, 14 miles apart, and at each there is sufficient water for herds of from 300 to 500 head of cattle. At one well at a depth of nine feet I got 4300 gallons per hour. We had to take all our own equipment and food supply for two years. Our party consisted of twenty-six men, and we took 62 camels and 400 goats with, us Tinned meat was' an impossibility; we lived on goat's flesh, and had the milk of the goats also. To prove that the climate'is good and. the water plentiful, there was not one case of serious illness. In the preliminary expedition one man was speared by natives, who were hostile to lis at first. We have made a new highway between Northern and Southern Australia, with a waterway that win enable to prospect on both sides in a land which is possibly rich in minerals, and has the finest pastoral territory in the world. "A great deal of wliat is called the desert is covered with edible spinifex, while saltbush—one of the best foods for sheep—is also found." Mr Canning was enthusiastic over what is called the northern region, where at present the population-num-bers about 1000. "I have been nine years right out back," he said, "and it is untrue to siay that it is not a white man's country. The days are hot,but the air is dry, and one can work easily in 120deg. ' I have lived all my life in a hot country, and have gone a day or two days without water and have not felt any the worse. Once I lost a camel and walked 210 miles in five days, carrying my own water, and again I went for eighty miles without a drink." When the railway comes—as come it must—Mr Canning sees the vision of a great colony of farmers flourishing in what was popularly supposed to be a desert, and sending their produce to .the countries of the world.