DEAD DARWIN

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 19, 22 January 1921, Page 3

DEAD DARWIN

WHAT INDUSTRIAL EXTBEIiII^D ' .'•' HAS DOIvE.' : *'-'-.

(FliOM OCR OWN COMIESPONDENT.?

"'.■. SYDNEY,; 10th January.' 1 . A visitor, from Darwin—a- man "with pastoral -interests up that' way—has beei giving th« newspapers some .interesting mattsr about, iho. paralysis that has been brought upon: that;town by the industrial extremists ;who have been.' permitted to gather 'there: > , . '. -.'■■"' Some five, years ago the firm of Vestey,' impressed by the large output of the cattle stations in the' Northern ..Territory, spent £1,250,0 Q. ph:.the'.'estaijlish- ' ment of ' meat ' ■freezingTWorks, . and £1,000,000'0n the purchase oFcattle stations. Operations were commenced and the future of the Territory began to look ■ better. But all the scum of industrialism seem to father in Darwin, and in no time at all there was sufficient.of these undesirables at the .works and the:port ' to' ab.6ut take possession of the. place. Wages were forced lip-and: up,-until ordinary unskilled labourers about -'.the works were receiving £60' a fortnight— and- spending it" in the hotel bars. Fin- ; ally, the wharf mph'marl" it so "hot; 1 that' it cost 30s. per ,ton to %)id. tlie -' beef -alone Industry' couldn't 'stand,.;.,this, and Vestey's, a few mo_nths. agOj.;when the Imperial meat contract ran aiut, sud- • denly closed the. works. . - . The Bolsheviks of' Darwin were in/precisely the position in-which the carousing vermin on the hog's back found themselves when the; hog died. , They tried to live, like the famous people of fiction, by. taking in each other's washing, and when .that did not work they gently hinted. that they;, ought. to be.;. a * charge upon the State. Lately, they have been sneaking away • from Darwiu on ©very steamer--and it is possible'that presently, when the' town .is a..^littls cleaner, and there is a. cliance i 0 import^ • ins; a decent' class of citizen, :tne- works - will re-open. Meanwhile the'tdwn^'ahd , _the pastoral industry at the back Of'it, "aTe -.nost remarkably and patheticalh d«td. ..-•'■'.' " y~•■:.'.■■■■:■■.■'■' :■••.,-y