NORTHERN TERRITORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13844, 2 September 1908, Page 7

NORTHERN TERRITORY.

OFx-ER FROM CAPITALISTS. Br Telegraph.— Association.— Adelaide, September 1. An offer has been made on behalf of a syndicate of English and German capitalists to the fjtate Government to take over the Northern Territory on tho same terms as it' was offered to the Commonwealth Government. • "••••

A provisional agreement was arrived at in February, 1907, between the Federal Government and the Government of South Australia ■ for the transfer of the control of the Northern Territory • to the Commonwealth. Title transfer was said to be conditional on a transcontinental railway being completed and the adoption by the Federal; Government > of a policy of development. Difficulty has been experienced, however, in arriving, at a /satisfactory ; basis of settlement, ; ; and meanwhile this part of Australia continue*practically isolated and undeveloped. The future of thin vast unpopulated tract of country, with its enormous potentialities, is a matter of vital concern to the people of . Australia. In referring; to Sir .Joseph Ward's recent speech on the "Yellow Peril, the London Globe made the following significant remarks:—'lt ie another sign on the part of Australasians that they are beginning to realise that their paucity of population* is a serious menace bo their security; and it is seriously to be hoped, that they will! set about the only possible ; way of minimising the danger to whiich they are so alive—• the obtaining of emigration on » comprehensive asid continuous scale. There are signs, indeed, that- this will be dome and although the labour unions deprecate the step, the general safety of Australia must' be set above the interests of a claw. -We cannot shut our eyes to the dangers which the Commonwealth runs from the future invasion of the Eastern races. And it should not be forgotten that the present practically uninhabited northern and western coasts of Australia have lately been shown to be far more attractive thai?, was supposed by the explorers of last century.*'