EMPTY AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15824, 24 July 1913, Page 8

EMPTY AUSTRALIA.

THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. SOME FIRST IMPRESSIONS. v By Elsie R. Masson. I. It is no uncommon thing nowadays for I man, and perhaps also his family, to set off to seek their fortunes in the Northern Territory of Australia, a place that a few years ago was but a name, even to other Australians. Yet although the administration, the future, the proDlems of the country, are much discussed, the dome6tio details of the lito there aro still unknown. The woman who sets out to make her home in the Northern Territory has no idea of what awaits her. Her husband is full of tho possibilities of the land, enthusiastic over the conditions -which are offered him, keen to make a suocess of his work, whatever :t may be. The woman is silently asking herself, " What sort of food shall I. be ablo to get for the children? Will there be any servants V How shall we all stand that terrible heat? Abovo all, what will the place be like?" No one can answer- these questions, or only in the most discouraging way, urging her not to risk her life and those ot tho children in tho fevers and dangers of a tropic land. With a picture in her mind of a glaring, shadelees Australian. township, inhabited by a feverstricken population, snakes, and mo6quitos,' she leaves tho comforts of civilisation and eails for Darwin. EN ROUTE. The traveller to the Northern Territory, if wise, does not start till April, when the hot, wet months are past, and the dry, rainless season, whicih .lasts until October, is begun. At this time also thero is a fair ceiiainty of a calm voyage, and a calm voyago is well worth while on the East Const of Australia. Shortly after leaving Brisbane the steamer passes inside the Great Barrier Reef, and sails past mile after miio of ridged coastline, ' softly wooded with lonoly forest and backed by mysterious mountain ranges. On all sides little opalescent islands rise out of the peacock blue sea; as tho boat passes by they reveal hidden beaches, dark oaves,, and rocky reefs crested with palm 6. 'There is a pause for a few hours in the beautiful harbour of Cairns; then the shelter of the reef is left behind, and a long swell from the southeast sets the steamer rolling. The next port is Thursday Island, a township of white houses, 6pread over the side of a bare, rocky island. Hero the traveller sees for the first time a really mixed population. The main street of the town, is lined with neht Japanese and Chinese stores; groups of burly aboriginals 6tand at the oorners; Malay and Japanese pearlers hang over the verandahs of tiny, ramshackle iron houses; a native of Papua, with stiff, frizzy hair standing a foot high, strides down the road; and there are, besides, innumerable others of every shade of brown; belonging to none or to all of the races inhabiting the island. Between Thursday Island and Darwin is tho longest stretch of .sea without a port. The'water is colourless and oily, cabins oil board ships are unendura-bly stuffy, and it is in a haze of sticky heat that the traveller beholds for the first time the Northern Territory—a slip of blue land away on the horizon.

ARRIVAL AT DAE WIN. Early in the mottling the. steamer begins to go half-speed, and by the time tho passengers are on deck it is crawling slowly up tho harbour of Darwin. The heat has disappeared, and a 0001, freah breexo is blowing over the sea, On all sides aro low shores, covered with mangroves which grow right into the water. A squat little filing boat with square brown ribbed sails lies in the steamer's path. It is a Chinese 6ampan. This probably means that on board the mail boat there is opium which, ill spite of tho ship's officers and Customs, lias been smuggled all tho way from Hongkong down south and back again. A signal will be hoisted by the Chinese crew, something will bo dropped over the side, and presently tho sampan will scud innocently away ovor the blue water. Gradually, the shores of the harbour rise to cliffs. White buildings appear, buried in trees; tho boat swings round the corner, and there, in a bay between two headlands, lies Darwin.

Darwin consists of a few solid stone buildings, mostly of an official nature, of wooden or iron houses painted white, enclosed with plaited bamboo, shaded by _ trees and brightened by shrubs with brilliant flowers. It consist* further of Chinatown, a wide street of staggering Chinese dwellings, and of a blight of small tin hovels, mostly made, of the pieoes of corrugated iron that were blown about Darwin in a great cyclone 15 years ago. SOME' SAMPLES OF COLOUR. Here dwells the "coloured" population of Darwin, strictly differentiated from the Chinese or the black. For the most part it is made up. of sturdy Malay pearlers or slender, to'bacoo-ooloured Manilamen, Far moro numerous are the Chinese, although their numbers are dwindling every day. In the tailoring establishments melancholyeyed China boys of wretched physique stitch all day at tronio. suits for tno white man. Aged Chinese* with fallen withered cheeka lie on 6eats in the road, their bony, knees drawn up to their chine, and puff at bamboo pipes; through dark doorways laundrymen can be seen swiftly ironing; patientfaced little women with shiny black hair, clad in blue ooats and- trouscirs, stand before their houses, nursing solemn yellow babiee. They have good cause to bo solemn, poor little citizens of a country that does not want them.

The 6ize of tho black population cannot be estimated, for it varies almost from day to day. Besides the Larakia tribe, whose cojntry is Darn-in, and whose camp lies a mile from the town, there are many others who have' been brought in by the police as witnesses in court cases, or have come of their own free will, paddling for miles along the coast in a, canoe, or trekking through pathless bush, in order to taste tho pleasures of town life for a month or two. They pass in and 'out every day. Sometimes hardly one is to be seen in tjw town. At other times at every street corner you. meet them, men in blue shirts and dungarees carrying a handful of Bpeare, shockheaded lubras in bright red cotton gowns, and fat naked children prancing gaily in the rear NOT GLARING AND SHADELESS. The' newcomer to Darwin experiences a feeling of relief when ho finds it not <o bo the shadeless, glaring township he had heard described in tho south. ; There aro plenty of trees in the streets, there are still patches of uncleared bush in the town, and the roads round by the sea are shaded by magnificent clumps of dark Japanese kmboo. Not two miles out there are Jho Government gardens, where flourish cocoanut palms, banyans, and other tropio vegetation. Treeless Danvin certainly is not; and unbearably hot it is not, for in spite of a strong sun, a fresh sea breeze blows daily, and tho nights are so chilly that often two blankets aro required in bed. Such is Darwin outwardly. What it is inwardly can only _ bo discovered after many weeks, when it gradually reveals to the "housekeeper its comforts and disoomforts, its trials, the means of overcoming l them, its failings and its charm.