THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1912. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10640, 22 May 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1912. THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.

Dr iGiiliuith, ..Northern. Territory Administrator, speaking of the laud of Iris latest sphere of activity, says:— About the productivity of the Territory no man who bad any experience of it could have the least doubt. There l wore immense areas of fertile flmid without vpe'opte, stock, or eyen fences. Counting in all the white people, all the Seattle, all the horses, all the pigs, there was net one domesticated animal to the square mile. Miuch of the land was not even surveyed. In. days gone by a square was drawn on the map, 'and that was declared to be the area leased. As to it.he prospects of production,- it had ibeen demonstrated that cotton, rice, tea, isfeal hemp, and other tropical growths were well adapted, but it was ji question 'Whether under* white-labour c'ond'tion* Australia could l&uccesisfully compete, as fan - as cotton was concerned, with other Countries unless machinery such, as cotton-picking ma chines .could ibe iworlced. If these machines did prove a success, then the cotton industry shoulli be a very profitable one. The Territory might also turn out to ibe one of the great gran'aries of Australia. The 'wheat would .have to ibe of a different variety from the growth in the tsouth—perhaps the same sort as was grown in India. If .wheat could be produced in that countt.ry, as it was, why not in the Tei'ri--tfory, too ? For the present, however, cattle and sheep would have to be the mainstay, and !he intended to devote early attention to the regulation, and, iif possible, the extermination of tick in cattle, and iso rid the Territory of its greatest scourge. The new Administrator was emphatic upon, the maintenance of ithe leasehold system, and upon the first .ea'l of the small bolder to the consideration of the Government. "The more small settlers we can encourage to go there, tlie more we will) be pleased," he said, "for the more, valuable .will the country be to Australia as an Asset and for defence. lEve.ry effort wM be made by the Agricultural Department on its '■■xp'erimfflitall 'farms to demonstrate

vvli'at can. best and .most economically j be -produced by the comparatively I ■ small! sett-lens." TBut .they would, of i' course, encourage pastoralists also to take iup tie land that was purely suited for pastoral purposes. He believ- " ed that in- tihe neighbourhood of the MacDon-akl Ranges, which he intended to visit as soon as lite got things properly organised, there were huge areas well suited for sheep-breeding. Horsebreeding and pig-rais'mg should also be valuable adjuncts to other industries. The Territory was a magnifii cently watered country. There were at lea Sit six rivers up which coastal steamers had been a hundred miles, *a-nd with a locking system the Roper and other rivers might easily be made navigable -for a much .farther distance. Concern'ng mining developments, he said that Captain Matthews, iChidf Inspector of MrJies in South Australia, was going up with tihe Parliamentary party to report as to the mineral -resources, and 'he therefore did 1 mot wish (to say anything on this subject beyond the fact that he believed the report, from what he had been of irTning (there himself, would be tof a very Ihopeful dharacter. "Is |it a white roan's country? Well, lanuong the men who haye been there for years —30 year®, some of them— I saw a greater proportion of healthy vigorous l .specimens than one could siee elsewhere. There is, as far .as I could ascertain, lio tropical disease other than malaria. If people live as the conditions warrant —frequently in the open air, iplenty of exercise, plenty of work m till© cool hours, rational clothing, they will get along just as iweii there, I thin'k, as iin the temperate zonks-. If the British troops could go to India at the time icf the Mutiny,and beat the black man on his own heath, wiUh none of the scientific aseistance to living such as we have today, it will be ist-rahigc if they tan not adapt themselves to the better conditions in the Territory. If we get the notion! that people can't live iin the Territory, don't fo-1-get that there are pLiity of othe-rs willing to try."