MINISTER'S ARDUOUS TOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22568, 11 May 1935, Page 16

MINISTER'S ARDUOUS TOUR

THROUGH CENTRAL AUSTRALIA KANGAROO DISABLES TRUCK (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 4. The Minister for the Interior in Australia is responsible for the administration of the two vast, sparsely-settled areas, Central Australia and the Northern Territory. No Minister lasts long enough to get to know those territories thoroughly, but each succeeding holder of the portfolio seems to find time in a parliamentary recess to wedge in a trip through them and so acquaint himself with features of the semi-continent he has to deal with. The present Minister (Mr Paterson) is a countryman and was accustomed, in his younger days, to roughing it. Consequently, he is probably enjoying a tour he is now making more than his city-bred predecessor, Mr Archdale Parkhill, did. Mr Paterson needed all his country knowledge and experience to make the best of an eventful 800 miles drive in trucks which he and his party had from Alice Creek to the new goldfields at Tenm.nt's Creek. Soon after the caravan of three utility trucks and a touring car passed through the M'Donnell Ranges, 16 miles from Alice Springs ; it came upon a small opening in the mulga scrub, in which stood a disabled plane. Beside it were the two occupants. They had been flying from the Granites goldfield the previous evening when their engine cut out at a low altitude. The pilot put the machine down skilfully in the only patch of reasonably clear ground for miles, and the plane suffered little damage. The Ministerial party headed steadily northward for a whole day. In an attempt to keep to a certain schedule, trie party went on in the dark. All hopes of reaching a comfortable camping site for the night disappeared when a kangaroo leaped from the roadside into the radiator of the leading truck. The radiator was so badly holed that it was decided to make camp there and then. The trucks were drawn up in a circle, swags were unrolled on the red dust of the' plain, a huge campfire was lit, and everyone turned in except the truck drivers, who worked throughout the night trying to repair the radiator, but without success Before Mr Paterson rolled into his blankets, he learned that the kangaroo, although badly injured, was still alive at the side of the road. Borrowing a revolver, Mr Paterson walked into the darkness and put an end to the animal's sufferings. Then he erected the bonnet of the damaged truck about his pillow to keep off wind and dust, got between blankets spread on the ground, and went to sleep with a towel wrapped round his head. The truck was abandoned where it stood the next morning.

After lunch on the roadside with countless thousands of red ant hills for company, the party reached Tennant's Creek. A* present there are about GOO people in the Tennant's Creek gold-min-ing area, which covers about 1000 square miles. All but about 70 are men. The settlement now includes three stores, a butcher shop, a bakery where bread costs Is a loaf, and an hotel, where beer is 3s a bottle. At present the only drinking water available is a few inches in a Government tank, and that carted from a well seven miles away and sold to settlers and miners for 10s for 44 gallons The Minister gained a new perception of railway problems of the interior during the train journey from Adelaide to Alice Springs. Twice the train stopped and then went slowly ahead —the flanges of the wheel cutting grooves in drifts of red sand which had risen to within an inch of the top of the rails. At one place the sand was within 18 inches of the wires of the overland telegraph line.