NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume XVIII, Issue 2553, 7 July 1871, Page 3

NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA.

The Adelaide correspondent of the Argus says :—lt is singular that our London friends should have thus persistently determined not to have anything to do with the Northern Territory just at the moment when we are actually doing something towards its development. The Northern mail of last week brought us a month's despatches from the telegraph parties, which amply confirm the wonderful success which has so far attended their operations. They find abundance of water, good country, and plenty of timber for poles: the only serious obstruction as yet met with—the precipitious MacDonnell Kuuges, near Central Mount Stuart has been completely overcome by the discovery of an easy pass, through which the stores and material have been successfully led; some hundreds of miles of the line have been cleared; and the poles are being rapidly erected; in the first eection the wire itself is being put up ; and already an advance party has been detached to begin opeTattone in the eection which -will form the last connecting link between this expedition and that working southward from Port Darwin. We undoubtedly owe much of this extraordinary success to the season, which has probably been better fitted for the purposes of such an undertaking than any we have had for the last sixteen

rye=nfrf ; f>ut ttLitHvSe should have been |4tbl*-ttt.availauuauLve4..ta_tb.e_.VLtj!!ioj3iti.)f the natural advantage iS.us br>>>t*»ht within our reach i.Yd;: > f.i tire ca.-ai-ify j for organisation which Mr i\>ud has j displayed, and to bis provision in arranging every detail with the greatest care. The Government also are entitled to some praise f\>r letting Mr Todd have his own way in everything. I am not aware that interest or patronage filled up a single post, and the consequence is that the whole party, officers and men, have been selected for their special capabilities.

( Meantime tho internal development of our great jNTorth country is beginning—Jate enough no doubt—to attract attencion. Two enterprising squatters, Messrs R, and G. Millner". started some time back to travel stock across the continent, and are now halted near the MacDonnell Ranges for the lambing season. They have 4000 sheep with them, besides"horses and cattle, and so far they have met with no difficulties whatever. But the main resources of the Northern territory lie in its adaptability for- tropical growth's-and its proximity to the trade of the Eastern Archipelago. Mr R, D. Ross, who for many years held the office of assistant eommissarvgeneral here, who is familiar with the East, and has recently made a Journey through India and Europe, devoted much time to collet-ting information in reference to this subjrct, and the result , of his researches are now ap: pearing in a succession of articles in the fieqister. He urges that steps should be taken at once to introduce Asiatic labour for he especial purpose of rice-groujng. The banks of the Adelaide, Daly, and Alligator rivers are thought to be well adapted for this purpose. The land could be let upon much more favorable terms thfln any such land is to be had in the Straits settlements ; and if a few Chinese could be brought down, and found the experiment successful, it is the opinion of competent judges that in a \'ew years tin's industry nlone would attract a population of 20,000 or 30,000. Sugar-growing will doubtless.follow in time, but that involves more capital, more skilled labour, and costly machinery, three tilings which do not readily find their way into a. young settlement. Mr Ross also urges the immediate opening of a trade with the Moluccas, B.inda, and Arru Islands In many respects Port Darwin is a far more convenient depot for such a trade than Singapore, which at present monopolises ninelenths of it, and the telegraph will afford means of working it in connection with our trade with China for teas, which immensely increase the prospects of success. It is of course impossible for mc to condense into a paragraph the whole drift of Mr Ross's arguments, but I have reason to know that some of our lending mercantile houses are likely to embark in some such undertaking as I have briefly sketched, so soon as the telegraph is open. Other sources of future wealth in the north have, I believe, been carefully investigated by Mr Eoss, but fie has not yet made public the reeiilts of his inquiries thereon. I may possibly be able to tell your readers more about this in my next letter.