A LITTLE KNOWN LAND

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 63, 7 December 1917, Page 6

A LITTLE KNOWN LAND

AUSTRALIA'S NORTHERN TERRITORY

HUGE MEAT ENTERPRISE

TRAINING THE BLACKS FOR RURAL CITIZENSHIP.

One of the officers of the Commonwealth Government who has been helping Dr. Gilruth to make the Northern Territory a lit place for white men to live in is at present visiting Wellington, lie is Mr. H. Ji. Carey, formerly well known in Wellington, but lately Government Secretary and Public Trustee in the Territory.

Mr. Carey, in the course of a conversation with a Dominion reporter yesterday, gave- some interesting information about this little-known land. It now boasts something of a. white population. There are between 4000 and 5000 whites in the area, and something like 30,000 blacks. Into this territory the big firm of meat brokers, Vestey Brothers, have- come with a project, now almost in full development, to raise and export largo quantities of frozen meat. The- works are probably the biggest in the whole Australian continent, and bigger than all but two or three works in this country. The works have been erected at a cost of half a million sterling. Five acres are under roof, and the floor space of the works is ten acres. It is expected that the works will for ;i long timo at any rate doal only with rieof, as tho growing of sheep in the Darwin country is almost unknown. In the works it will be possible to kill and chill 500 head, freeze 400, and can 200 head per day.-- These huge works are to exploit a country in which the pioductiou of stock for export was unknown. And yet in the pant season the number of cattle killed was 18,911. It was hardly to be expected that this firm, with nil international reputation as big operators, would go into the Territory and spend all this capital unless they could be assured that they would get enough stocfi to keep the works reasonably well employed, and they were allowed to acquire <-m enormous area of land. It is a. largo area ovon in a country where it is iot the custom to talk of acres, but of miles, meaning square miles, of ..ountry. It is hoped that the erection i;f these works will assure tho future of the Territory as a pastoral country, The Water Problem. One of the essentials for the successful occupation of this country is water for irrigation. There are regular rains every year, but they como only in the rainy season, and wliilc there is enough moisture to keep stock alive without any irrigation at all, the supply of additional water makes it possible to stock the land much more heavily. Before the war it was possible to put down a bore- at a cost of about £1000, but it is not possible to get the material necessary now at almost any price. The sinking of a bore means the bringing in of five miles more land. The Intention of the Government is to press forward a scheme of closer settlement of tho Darwin lands, hut the war, causing as it did shortage of both money and material, put an end to these' schemes for the time being. Bringing In Sheep. One of tlie interesting experiments now being made is the introduction of sheep into the territory. Tlie experiment is being tried in a district some 300 miles inland from Darwin, but in that country of big distances it is called a coastal district. Tlie venture is not yet out of tho experimental stage, but at present the outlook is promising. This is tho first year that the sheep have been liberated. For the first two years it was necessary to yard them every night. Tho only alternative would have been to fence enclosures for them, and as the fences would have to he dingo-proof it was thought advisable to yard the sheep every night until it was certain that they would live. After two years it was considered certain that "they would live, and they wore turned out. The first result of the stop was an increase of fifty per cent, in tho flock, and the wool's showiii2 a distinct improvement. The heat nf the Territory is nnt tno great for the growth of food wool, henaiise some of Hie best wonl in Australia is crown !>t Tiourke, which hns a hotter cl'mate than Da'rwjn, but it is not yet certain how the tropical rains will affect tlio wool. Teaching the Natives,

There are about 30,000 natives in the Territory, many, of them employed on the stations as stockmen and at other work. Nearer to Darwin they are mostly employed as domestic servants, the chief reason being that they are the only kind of domestic servants procurable. "One of our most interesting experiments," said Mr. Carey, "is our endeavour to teach the natives dairying. We brought up a number of dairy cattle intending to lease them to the small settlers' whom we had hoped to bring up into this country until the outbreak of war postponed all that. When tho small settlement scheme had to be dropped, we transferred the cattle to the aboriginal holding. The cattle are thriving there, the herd is increasing in a normal way, wad the natives are taking to tho work quite well. Like every other experiment it ■ takes time. We had to teach the natives right from the beginning, because they had to learn that it was not right to treat dairy cattle in the samo way as bush cattle. We had to teach the men to be clean. It is one of the funniest sights you over could imagine to seo all those fellows strip and go undor a shower before they go to milk. When they have cleaned themselves they get into their clean milking suits, nlid they do the work well enough. They soon cot tired of one job, so that it lias to bo arranged that a , rnnii is milking for a time and is then given a snoll as yardman. Our aim at the aboriginal station is to bring in the wild black into some sort of touch with civilisation without spoiling him. We don't want them round tho towns, because when they get into tho. towns tlinv learn a lot of mischief and very little, good. They can be taught to do useful work. AH tho buildings wo put up at tbp staHon were built by them under the direction of two or Mime white men, and nastorniists who hew seen thoi" say that the buildings purl yards would be a credit to any station. State Control. "You may be interested to know that, the Government owns practically .ill the hotels in the Territory ._ Two in the south country are in private hands, Jmt, we nwn M\« four in f'o north part. AWn the State took thorn over it naid compensation to the owners. Wp find that our system of State control works very well indeed, and the enterprise shows a reasonable profit. Therp wore two reasons for the resumption of the hotels by tl'e t". One vns'Unt. i>. was desi'-ib'o tl ,n t onlv Hie l<pst Honor should I>p sold, and Hip othor was that wp did not want to h.ivp mr , " pneonratred to dri"k to pxcpss ni"l pnpnd nil thfii' money.after months of labour in a dri'ik'mt bout. Our managers nr" not pn'd lty results, and they rl<> not rare whet'">r 1 man bns on" drii'k or twpiih , . W" have parly r-losinn; tlipi-p, too: the hoHs are closed at eight in tho evpninsr."