POLITICS IN THE BUSH

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 45, 17 November 1925, Page 9

POLITICS IN THE BUSH

AUSTRALIAN CANDIDATE’S CLOSE CALL VAST ELECTORATES The present Federal election campaign has emphasised Australia’s vastncss and emptiness. In the more settled States of New South Wales and Victoria, the electorates outside the metropolitan areas are large enough to make the political work streuous and exacting, but in tle “empty” States the task of the prospective ALP. become stupendous. Some of the electorates are as large as countries. Queensland has some good examples in Alaranoa, Capncornia, and Herbert, but these are insignificant compared with the Northern territory. The whole of this vast, almost empty, area is one electorate. Until three years ago the territory had no Parliamentary representative. As a result of alleged grievances, discontent became rife, culminating in a erv of “No taxation without representation,” and a near-revolution. It was then given the right to elect a member of the House of'Representatives, who could be its spokesman on proposed legislation, but could not vote on it. Air. Harold Nelson, who had been the radical Afayor cf Darwin, was elected the territory’s first member.. Although he was an excellent champion of the North in the House, Aft. Nelson at times made injudicious utterances, and it was one of these that indirectly, led him into one of the most unenviable adventures that has befallen any politician. Towards the end of the last Parliament Air. Nelson hotly attacked the reputation and character of the Government Secretary at Darwin, Alajor Story. The Government proved these allegations to be untrue. Alajor Story’s friends and soldier-comrades. urged him to even matters by opposing Air. Nelson at the poll. This he decided to do. Consequently when Parliament was suddenly dissolved, Mr. Nelson found that instead of being unopposed or with a weak opponent, he woujd have a battle to retain his seat against a formidable rival.

The electorate is roughly a sixth of the Commonwealth’s area, but it contains barely 3600 people, of whom fewer than half are entitled to vote. In an electorate where every vote counts, Air. Nelson realised that he would have io interview almost every one of the scattered voters personally. H& decided to do so by motor-cycle. He left Darwin and in the aftirnoon reached the settlement of Stirling. Having completed his electioneering there; he set out for the next outpost, Barrow Creek, but he had not arrived thete by nightfall. He was still missing the iiext morning. > The alarm was raised and search parties set out. It was not until Thursday afternoon that Air. Nelson was found in an almost-nnconscious condition. He had wandered from the illmade track and became “bushed.” His tracks zig-zagged in a hopeless fashion and this proved his salvation, for it enabled a black tracker to catch up with him. Without food and with only a half-pint of water when he set out, he had drunk lubricating oil, which at first made him violently ill. Then Air. Nelson made bush fires to attract attention, and dropped pieces of paper along his track. On one of these was written a fatewell to his wife, which concluded with an assurance that “a Power stronger than the electors had taken a hand in his destiny.” He was found lying in the ashes of a fire he bad made. His mouth was choked with congealed oil which had to be removed before water could be poured down his throat. West Australia, also, has some huge electorates, of which the largest is Kalgoorlie One of the candidates there is nothing if not thorough. Out in the spinifex desert lives an old prospector, whose vote the energetic candidate determined to secure. He hired a buggv and two camels—the usual mode of locomotion in those parts —and spent four days in jolting across a trackless, waterless waste to gain that solitary voter’s support at the poll. The advertisement gained by his enterprise won him many more followers,, and he deserved them.