EXPENSIVE TERRITORY

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 40, 16 August 1921, Page 7

EXPENSIVE TERRITORY

?•> ——. ....-..(.-. •. - j (FROM OUR OWN fcOIUIISPONMHT.) SYDNEY, 9th.- August. Drastic reductions in jhe strength of / the Public Service in"' the Northern Territory, and a reorganisation of \h_eadministration, are being carried out, as a reaulfc .of the recent 'visit-to the; Territory of Mi"., Poyijtori 1, "Ffcd^jal'Minister of Home and Territories. Mr. j Poynton hopes to save, at once, nearly £20,000 a year. Further proposals, liberating the Government from some of th« costly undertakings with which 1 it has been associated, in recent years,., ara under consideration. ' . » The position of 'the Northern Territory is .one- of the (scandalous things which ' stands ■to l the -discredit of tha Federal Government. Several ..'■ million pounds 1 have been sunk .there by the Federal Government- since the. Territory was/taken over from ■South.., Australia, in am attempt ,iic- ,build-up a> populous and flourishing State 'there at . "the back door of; Australia; "■ But*'there 1 is nothing to show for the huge expenditure, except,a number.d£ moribund Government enterprises,- a - railway" lina which does not pa,y, a numbaf? of Stateowned hotels, which are. in'"a chronic condition of "muddle, a meatworks 'which is" closed up, an army of • highly-paid 1 and apparently useless, public servjints, and a civil population ;i of; a; few;" Hundred people, most of whom are-out-and-out... Bolsheviks. ..; _„,,,...■ The Government"';:now'".■propoSeS to abolish th© State hot-els, and reorganise the licensing system;, .amalgamate tha Mines, Land, Police, " and..,' Aborigines Departments; rid th' Government of the costly shipping service with which., communication... is maintained with -. coastal settlements; abolish Government activities'; which' savour, of commercial undertakings,, and make room fbr> private r enterprise; remove the Danvin "Municipal Council from the administration of. Bolsheviks by substituting 'a ...rate- ' payers' roll for.the 'present adult; .franchise.; more police, borrowed frAn-tho adjoining States, would..be. sent>to the, ' Territory to maintain ordeT. ,-.-': It appears that the' Government' is going to do what should have been done years agx>—namely, Abandon the attempt to develop this great,region by tße Government, and throw;' its -wonderful-op- x portiuuties open fco -private--, enterprise -, If that ■ ™ done promptly ;and ihtelliWly, the Northern Territory, may yeiTtako «-xP?-£ amcne the flourishing' States of the Commonwealth. The«liWr7 of the last ten years ".adds'yet another" in- «& If tlP^V™- &*&#' the utter impracticability of ; State SodalSm