QUEER LIFE-DARWIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17347, 19 December 1919, Page 9

QUEER LIFE-DARWIN.

FOOTBALL IH SUMMER^

JURIES WHO NEVER CONVICT. [feom OUB..OWN,.CCBESSPONDENI.I s-r • SYDNEY, Dec. 10..

An official inquiry into the, condition of affairs in ths Northern Territory: has aow commenced, and it is believed that tha tact and capacity of the new Administrator there, Mr. Stahiforth. Smith, 'will quickly put order and law in ths place of tha recent chcos. ". ' ir A representative -* of the ' Melbourne Argus, .who has been sent to Darwin, tells some quaint stories of life there. He says that, as he writes,'with the temperature at 9t degrees,, a vigorous fwthal! match is in. p.- • gress.' The barracking '& being done in tongues as Greek, Maltese,- .Chinesa.i Here, iootball is played in summer, which is'the rainy season, and cricket in when the , ground it more consistently - dry. Thousands of pounds have been spent by the Government here in "promoting agriculture." To-day, the only agriculture is represented by market .gardens, from which come an insufficient supply of vegetable's. __""** The Government maintains in the Territory a full-blown judge, to attend to the litigation of 4000 people. But for years past the.juries.. here have absolutely refused to convict anybody of anything. No matter What Was the evidence, the verdict was acquittal. So now prosecutions are initiated with reluctance.

• This is the ' glad home of the sly-grog shops. The people strike against paying Is 9d per bottle for beer at the hotels 1 which are conducted by the State); but they go like lambs to the sly-grog shops in the evenings and pay 3s and 4s per bottle.

They sent up from Melbourne at great expense a launch for the nseof the Administration. It arrived without some essential parts, and is still lying there helpless. The wharf has an elcLiy. i; ?ht equipment, but all niirht work is don? with flares.