DARWIN'S DARK DAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIVIII, Issue 17684, 20 January 1921, Page 8

DARWIN'S DARK DAYS.

ALL BUSINESS PARALYSED. WHAT EXTREMISTS HAVE DONE. [from oxtb own correspondent.] SYDNEY. Jan. 12. A visitor from Darwin—a man -with pastoral interests in the district—has been giving the newspapers some interesting details of the paralysis that has been brought upon that town by the industrial extremists who have been permitted to gather there. Some five yea™ ago the firm of Vestey and Co., of London, impressed by the large output of the cattle stations in the Northern Territory, spent £1,250,000 on the establishment of meat freezing works and £1,000,000 on the purchase of cattle stations. Operations were commenced, and the future of the territory began to look better. But ali the worst in industrialism seem to gather in Darwin, and in no time at all there was sufficient of these undesirables at the works and the port to about take possession of the place. Wages were forced up and up until ordinary unskilled labourers about the works ' were receiving £60 a fortnight, and spending it in the hotel bars. Finally it cost 30s per ton to load the beef alone. The industry could not stand thie, and Vesteys, a few months ago, when the Imperial meat contract ran out, suddenly closed the works. The inhabitants of Darwin tried to live, like the famous people of fiction, by taking in each other's washing, and when that did not work the v gently hinted that they ought to be a charge upon the State. Lately they have been leaving Darwin on every steamer, and it is possible that presently, when the town is a little cleaner, and there is a. ; chance of i importing a decent class of citizen, the j works will reopen. Meanwhile the town. I and the pastoral industry at the back of j it, are most remarkably and pathetically ! dead. ================= ——