COMIC OPERA REVOLT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20563, 14 May 1930, Page 8

COMIC OPERA REVOLT

TROUBLES OP DARWIN,. GOVERNMENT HOUSE PICKET, SORE THROATS BRING QUIET, [FROM OUR. OWN COmtESPONDENT.J S\DNEY, May g. j An nnhnppv fate seems to pursue the • Northern Territory of Australia and its i metropolis, Darwin. But the latest dis- ; turbance that has taken place at Darwin has all tlio elements of comic opera, and : the people of the rest of the continent! j have refused to take it seriously. But [ it must have been fairly serious for the ! unfortunate Government resident, who | was locked in by the unemployed, because their demands had not been acceded to. j Following a demonstration, Government I House was picketed, and all bank officials | were told to 'remain at their bank and stand guard over the money. Mjanwhile the unemployed camped on the verandah of Government House, and all through the night—several nights—danced to the tune of a number of mouth organs. Finally, after it had been in progress for less than a week, the collapsed through red croup. In short, the Red Army developed sore throats, and the five constables —reinforcements from the out-back —then had no difficulty in securing the upper hand. Since then all has been quiet. How much the rebels' hearts were in the rebellion can ha gauged from tho fact that the whole fabric of their proletarian uprising was shattered when the police arrested a few of their leaders for being illegally on the verandah of Government. House. The final humiliation came when a man was sent with a broom to sweep up the signs and symbols of the revolution—cigarette butts, match heads, paper and food scraps. The general headquarters—a tent with a red flag and a cook's galleyopposite Government House, was pulled down by the police. Apology to the Government. Those who were most prominent in. the rebellion have apologised to the Federal Government for locking its representative in Government House, but all the same there are to be some prosecutions for trespass. On Friday night last panic reigned for a while in the Communist camp, when some joker sneaked out of the scrub and stole the red flag from the headquarters' tent. He was chased into the gloom by the speediest of the commissars, but he escaped, and another red flag had to be secured. This is not easy in Darwin —and then to think that th»v police should have unceremoniously torn it down the following day. However, when the jnolice raided the red fortress there was not an atom of fight left in the revolutionaries. Now there are two policemen held in reserve in case there should be a fresh outbreak. All this goes to show up the serious side of the Northern Territory—the failure of successive Governments to bring Darwin and the vast area of the country behind it out of the slough of despond.The Commonwealth Government has now been in possession of the territory for two decades. About £10,000,000 b as been sunk there, not counting the huge sums that have been lost by private enterprise. Innumerable reports have been made and pigeonholed; and visiting experts have expressed their views in return for large fees. Many attempts have been made to get the Territory "going," but they have all failed. To-day there aro fewer inhabitants than there were 50 years ago; the expenditure exceeds the revenue by about £400,000 a year, and no progress is being made. A Variety ol Causes. These repeated failures are duo to a multiplicity of causes. The Territory is isolated and cut off from the rest of Australia; communications are poor and distances are great; labour is scarce, expensive and inefficient. There has been no continuity of policy. The unhappy record has had a depressing effect on private enterprise, despite the rich prospects of the pastoral and mining industries. But they are "prospects" only. In, 1928 the total value of all minerals produced was about £14,000. The cattle industry is ravaged by tho prevalence of ticks and by the difficulty of travelling stock through the waterless country. Agriculture has made little progress. In Darwin it is difficult to obtain a green vegetable. And casting its shadow over the whole of the territory is Darwin, the Chinese-aboriginal townships the resort of the riff-raff of the East, and the scene of so many comedy tragedies.: It is still the cloud on Australia's northern horizon.