EMPTY AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3112, 5 November 1913, Page 79

EMPTY AUSTRALIA.

THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. SOME FIRST IMPRESSIONS. By Elsie R. Masson. I. It is no uncommon thing- nowadays for a man, and perhaps also his family, to set off to geek 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 problems of the country, are much discussed, the domestic details ol the life there are 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 the possibilities of the -land, enthusiastic over the conditions which are offered him, keen to" make a success of his work, whatever ;t may be. The woman is silently asking horsed, “ What sort of food shall 1 be able to get for tire children? Will there be any servants? How shall we all stand rtoat terrible heat? Above 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 of too children in the fevers and dangers of a tropic land. With a picture in her mind of a glaring, ehadelcss Australian township, inhabited by a feverstricken population, snakes, and mosquitos, she leaves the comforts of civilisation and sails for Darwin.

EN V ROUTE. The traveller to the Northern Territory, if wise, docs not start till April, when the hot, wet months are past, and the dry, rainless season, which lasts until October, is begun. At this time also there is a fair certainty of a calm voyage, and a calm voyage is well worth while on the East Coast of Australia. Short'y after leaving Brisbane the steamer passes inside the Great Barrier Reef, and sails past mile after nnio of ridged coastline, softly wooded with lonely forest and backed by mysterious mountain ranges. On all sides little opalescent islands rise out of the peacock blue sea; ns the boat passes by they reveal hidden beaches dark caves, and rocky reefs crested with palms. 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, spread over the side of a bare, rocky island. Here the traveller sees lor the lirst time a really mixed population. The main street of the town is lined with neat Japanese and Chinese stores; groups of burly aboriginals stand at the corners; Malay and Japanese pearlers hang over the verandahs of tiny, ramshackle iron houses; a native of Papua, with stiff, frizzy hau standing a foot high, strides down the road; and there arc, besides, innumerable others of every shade of brown ; belonging to none <?r to all of the races inhabiting the island. Between Thursday Island and Darwin is the longest stretch of sea without a port. The water is colourless and oily, cabins on board ships are unendurably stuffy, and it is in a haze of sticky heiit that the traveller beholds for the first time the Northern Territory—a slip of blue land away on the horizon. ARRIVAL AT DARWIN. Early in the morning the steamer begins to go half-speed, and by the time the passengers are on deck it is crawling slowly up the harbour of Darwin. The heat has disappeared, and a cool, fresh breeze is blowing over the sea. On all s des are low shores, covered with mangroves which grow right into the. water. A squat little sailing boat with square brown ribbed sails lies in the steamer’s path. It is a Chinese sampan. This probably means that on board the mail boat there is opium which, in spite of the ship’s officers and Customs, has been smuggled all the 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 the sampan will scud innocently away over the blue water. Gradually the shores of the harbour rise to cliffs. White buildings appear, buried in trees; the boat swings round the corner, and there, in a bay between two headlands, lies Darwin. >,

Darwin consists of a few colid 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 consists further of Chinatown, a wide street of staggering Chinese- dwellings, and of a blight of small tin hovels, mostly made of the pieces 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 its made up of sturdy Malay pearlers or slender, tobacco-coloured Manilamcn. Far more 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 tropic suits for the white man. Aged Chinese with fallen withered cheeks lie on seats in the road, their bony knees drawn up to their chins, and puff at bamboo pipes; through dark doorways laundryrnen can be seen swiftly ironing; patientfaced little women with shiny black hair, clad in blue coats and trousers, stand before their houses, nursing solemn yellow babies. They have good cause to be solemn, poor little citizens of a country that docs not want them.

The size of the black population cannot be estimated, for it aaries almost from day to day. Besides the Larakia tribe, whose co.miry is Darwin, and whose camp lies a mile from the town, there arc many others who have been brought in by the police as witnesses in court cusre, or have come of (heir own free will, paddling for miles along the coast in a canoe, or trekking through pathless bush, in order to taste the pleasures of town life for'a month or two. They pass in and out every day. Sometimes hardly one is to be seen in the town. At other times at every street corner you meet them, men in blue shirts and dungarees carrying a handful of spears, 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 he finds it not to bo the shadeless, glaring township he had heard described in the south. There are plenty of trees in the streets, there are still patches of uncleared bush in the town, and the roads round by the sea rtro shaded

by magnificent clumps of dark Japanese bamboo. Not two miles out there are the Government gardens, where flourish cocoanut palms, banyans, and other tropic vegetation. Treeless Darwin certainly is not; and unbearably hot it is not, for in spite of a strong sun, a fresh sea breeze blows daily, and/the nights are so chilly that often two blankets are required in bed. Such is Darwin outwardly. What it is inwardly can only be discovered after many weeks, when it gradually reveals to the "housekeeper its comforts and discomforts, its trials, the means of overcoming them, its failings and its charm.