PIONEERS OF SETTLEMENT.

Northern Advocate, 19 October 1920, Page 3

PIONEERS OF SETTLEMENT.

AN AUSTRALIAN ENTERPRISE

A party recently left Port Darwin in a large motor-launch to take possession of a beautiful and fertile island lying off the north coast of Australia, near the mouth of the Me* Arthur River. It is known as V'anderlin Island. The leader is Mr. J. T. Beckett, for many years Projector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory. In the course of his travels through the Far North of Australia Mr. Beckett was much impressed with the character arid potentialfties of some of the unoccupied coastal lands, which he declares to be capable of growing anything and of maintaining , a large population in happiness and comfort. Finally he decided to settle on one of the coastal islands—-Vanderlin. He has decided that he can grow various tropical products, and more particularly cotton and coconuts. He has also purchased a number of sheep from the Government Experimental Farm in the Northern Territory, stating that these animals will flourish on his island. The party on the launch, which will be the means of communication between the island and civilisation, numbered thirteen, including Mr. Beckett and his wife, and their son and his wife. There were also

a number of aborigines as labourers and servants.

The enterprise has attracted a good deal of attention, and may have the effect of turning the faces of many people toward the undeveloped Australia. In any case, this is a development bound to occur sooner or later—a drift of the population, under economic pressure,, back to the land and the work of direct production,