PORT DARWIN TROUBLE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11931, 29 October 1919, Page 7

PORT DARWIN TROUBLE.

Auckland Herald Correspondent. Sydney, Oct. 17. The industrialists, as they term themselves, of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, have again attempted to overthrow the Government there. The committee of these revolutionaries demanded that the director of the territory (Mr H. E. Carey) and hie staff should abdicate and leave by the first steamer. It is reported that warships are hurrying to Darwin. The Territory—whose population comprises 2000 mixed white people and a few thousand of assorted colours—has tor long had an unenviable reputation as the scene of perpetual irritating and purposeless strikes, and latterly of deliberate assaults on authority. The present affair is a sequel to the attack on the late Adminstrator, Dr. Gilrutb, last December. On that occasion several hundred industrial! stalwarts surrounded Dr. Gilruth’s residence and demanded point blank that he should either account to them for his adminstration, or leave Darwin that day. Dr. Gilruth took his departure very soon afterwards. Then next stage in the Territory’s history is that the Commonwealth appointed a director, MrCarey, to take the place of the Administrator, and established a council, in which two seats were given to the official and two to the unofficial class, which the industrial section secured, while the chair was filled by the director); The official members and the industrial members could never agree, and finally the latter refused to attend its meetings. Then there was this latest eruption of the mob; again law was defied; again the officials were told that they must resign forthwith. Matters are in a chaotic state at present. Lawlessness prevails, and no jury will convict. Many business people have had to close down. The recent wage ;demand requests that women clerks and typists be paid £6 per week.