The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8. 1925. AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 83, 8 April 1925, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8. 1925. AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEM.

For the cause ihat lacks assistance, For the icrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And '.he qooA ihat ice can do.

The decision of the Common wealth Government to proceed with a vigorous policy of development and settlement in the Northern Territory raises the hope, if not the expectation, that within a measurable period of time one of the gravest problems that Australia has now to consider will be virtually solved. The Northern Territory is about 525,000 square miles in extent —roughly, it is five times as large as New Zealand; and there seems to be little doubt that it is endowed with rich natural resources. Mr. Alfred Searey, who hell an official position at i'ort Darwin for 15 years and made long jonvueys through the Territory, maintains that it ;:Hudes "an almost unlimited area of country r.'>t to h« Lc.uen in the world for cattle and horse breeding." The coastal country is fertile and capable of raising any kind of tropical product, and in addition there are large areas of rich agricultural soil inland. The rainfall is copious, the temperature not unduly high, and apart from its agricultural and pastoral possibilities the Territory is known to contain a large amount of mineral wealth. This view of the territory and its potentialities has been generally held throughout the Commonwealth, more especially by those who uphold the White Australian policy, and it at once suggests the question why, if all these tilings are so, settlement lias progressed so slowly in this region, and Australia to-day is called upon to explain to the world, and especially to the Orient, why she has kept this vast area so long empty and idle.

Jensen, who was formerly Government Geologist for the Territory. He admits that the climate is healthy, but considers that the amount of fertile soil is limited, except in regions that require a large amount of irrigation; while the mineral deposes, which appear to be extensive, will need very expensive development. Generally speaking, he attributes the slow progress of the Territory to the relatively small amount of easily accessible agricultural land, the heavy expenditure required for hircre scale production and irrigation, the bad transport facilities, and the lack of local markets. It is quite possible that Dr. Jensen takes too gloomy a view of the Territory and its resources, just as Mr. Searcy is probably too optimistic. But after all, even if the Territory were much richer than it actually is, it would hardly in its present state, attract any large number of immigrants or settlers, so long as there are considerable areas of land in the more temperate regions of the continent ready and waiting to be taken up by newcomrrs.

One of the most obvious replies to this query is that the account we have already given of the natural resources of the Territory may he, after all, a little exaggerated. -As against the enthusiastic eulogies of Mr. Searcy, Mrs. Guiin, and other well-known writers, wo niav set the testimony of Dr.

It remains then to lie seen whether the Commonwealth Government will be able to make its new programme of development sufficiently attractive to counterbalance the difficulties and hardships of existence in the North, and to remedy the economic and industrial defects from which this isolated region h;>s always suffered. But with the help of irrigation and the provision of roads and railway connection, so that markets will be made accessible for the country's products —assuming always that there is a large amount of money available for these purposes—the obstacles to success are not insuperable. It is now generally admitted that the climate and the tropical conditions prevailing in the Northern Territory are not such as to interfere with the healthy and happy existence of a white population. Professor Gregory, one of the greatest living authorities on these questions, in his latest work, "The Menace of Colour," reminds his readers that seventeen years ago he denounced the opinion that tropical countries are necessarily unhealthy and unsuitable for whites, and declared it to be "a popular prejudice which does not rest on an adequate foundation," and this conclusion, he now maintains, has been supported by the whole trend of medical opinio-a in the interval. North Australia could therefore be made exclusively "white";

and at the same time Professor Gregory argr.es vigorously against the claims put forward by Oriental peoples to settle there. He shows with a great wealth of illustration that there are largo unpeopled areas in the south and east of Asia still open for settlement by the Orientals. And the conclusion of the whole argument naturally is not only that the White Australia policy can be p.nrl should be maintained, but that, given '"finite plan, well conceived, ener.lly supported and strongly .iced, the problem si the Northern Territory can be successfully solved.