SETTLEMENT AT KIMBERLEY

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 56, 8 March 1922, Page 10

SETTLEMENT AT KIMBERLEY

In.a cable message published in The Post on Monday it was made to appear that Sir J. D. Connolly (Agent-General for Western Australia) had favoured: a scheme for introducing coloured labour into the.Northern Territory. As a matter of fact, Sir J. D. Connolly opposes the peopling, of the Territory by coloured races. The message should have read aa follows:—" Sir J. D. Connolly (AgentGeneral for ' Western Australia), interviewed in reference to the. Kimberley settlement scheme, said he has good reason to believe that the Imperial Government is favourably inclined to the scheme a3 a matter of Empire concern, because it will help to close the back door of the continent, which menaces the unpeopled territories of Northern Australia. He believes there is a possibility of the Imperial Government finalising the scheme during the visit of Sir James Mitchell (Premier of Western Australia), provided the Commonwealth agrees to share the financial responsibility." Some time ago Sir J. D. Connolly advocated that the Imperial' and Commonwealth Governments should co-operate in settling 100,000 whites in the Kimberley district within ten years. The Imperial Government, he said, should provide loans for the purpose o5 railways and roads and equipping 20,000 farms ready for occupation. He declared that the Kimberley district contains 1,000,000 acres of fertileland capable of carrying one sheep per acre, and possessed a temperate climate and abundant and regular rainfall. KimberJey is a fertile district in the Fitzroy basin in Northern (tropical) Western Australia.