THENORTHERN TERRITORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 5

THENORTHERN TERRITORY

ITS HANDICAPS AND ASSETS.

ANT-INFESTED AND DRY.

" INCLUDING horses and cattle, and even the chickens there is about one domesticated animal to every one of the 500,000 square miles of the Northern Territory," says Dr. Woolnough, one of the party of scientists who recently visited the Territory on behalf lof the Commonwealth Government. This illustration of the size and stock of tho great I country in tho north of Australia was given by Dr. Woolnough in a lecture- in Sydney. • He declared that cheap labour was essential to agricultural development if tho Territory , TC c to compete with the millions of Javanese | onlv a few days' journey to tho north, and I if white people wore to be successful, agri- [ culture would have to be confined to cereals. ! But tho white ant was a more serious handii cap to tho white man than the Chinese, had as tho latter might be. The ants wore everywhere, and their heaps, some rising 30ft in height, were spread all over the place. Tho water supply was a big problem. Tho rainfall was an ample one, but it was confined almost entirely to tho months of December, January, February, and March. Between April and September thero was not I tho least probability of anyone getting wet as ho went about. Tho 'bulk of tho rivers dried up during this period. But tho Catherine, Roper, and a couple of others were perennially owing. Tho worst feature of the Roper was the rock bars. These, however, acted as natural weirs, damming r>ack the water for a considerable distance, and it would not bo difficult to construct locks that would make tho river navigable for about 300 miles into tho interior. Tho water simply of the tableland to tho southoast of Darwin rested on asurer foundation than other parts of tho Territory, being I obtained "from sub-artesian wells. the ! water was reached at a depth of about 300 ft, rising by pressure to about xCOft, whence it had to bo pumped to tho surtax, chiefly by wind power. If there was an adequate supply of water it would be possible to grow 1 any kind of vegetable But the chief uso for i the water was watering stock, and for many ' years to como tho chief industry of the Territory would bo stock-raising. He had seen as many as 10,000 cattle Ijeing watered at one artesian well. I Mining had failed, not through lack of I rich ore, but because of the absence of < water, tho over-capitalising ot tho mines, and the distance from the centres of population. Ono of the finest pieces of work ho had seen I was the overland telegraph line to Adelaide I— the only link with tho rest of Australia. It ' was a glorious monument to the lato Sir . Charles Todd and the few people of South i Australia, who bore the cost of its construction.