"TOPSY TURVY LAND"

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 146, 18 December 1919, Page 5

"TOPSY TURVY LAND"

QUEER LIFE IN DARWIN.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, 10th De'cembpr.

An official inquiry iuto the condition of affairs in the Northern Territory has now commenced, and it is believed that ttie tact and capacity of the new Administrator there, Mr. Staniforth Smith, will quickly put order and law in the place of the recent chaos. A representative of the. Melbourne Argus who has. been sent to Darwin tells some quaint stories of life there. He says that, as he writes, with the temperature at 90, a vigorous football match is in progress. The barracking is being done in tongues as far apart as Greek, Maltese, , and Chinese. Here, football*is played in summer, which is the rainy season, and cricket in winter, when the ground is more'consistently dry.

Thousands of pounds have been spent by the Government here in " promoting agriculture." To-day the only agriculture is represented by market gardens, from' which comes an insufficient supply of vegetables.

The Government maintains in the territory a full-blown Judge, to attend to the litigation of 4000 people. But for years past the juries here have absolutely refused to convict anybody of. anything. No matter what was the eviderice, the verdict was acquittal. So now prosecutions are initiated with reluctance. '

This is the glad home of the slygrog shops'. The people strike against Eayirig 1« 9d per bottle for beer at the. otels (which are conducted by the State), but they go. like lambs-to the sly-grog shops in the evenings and pay 3s a.nd 4s per bpttle.

They sent \ip from Melbouina at great expense a launch for the use of the Administration. It arrived without some essential parts and is still lying there_ helpless. The wharf has an electric light-ennipment, but all night work is done with flares.