The Sun MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1914. THE NEGLECTED TERRITORY

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 116, 22 June 1914, Page 6

The Sun MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1914. THE NEGLECTED TERRITORY

One of the essential links in the chain that will give Australia a sense of security." from alien descents is the peopling of the Northern Territory. The Northern .Territory, is tbo--back door of the Commonwealth, and sooner or later the Federal authorities must make lip their mind to device means by which a hasp will be attached to the door. The Territory lias for many years been the Cinderella of Australia. Admitted that the .country is difficult to settle, the fact remains that until Dr Gilruth (whom the Oommonwea.Hl^(lll l 'Q|Jirfvom New Zealand) was appointed to., administer the Territory, 110 had been made to road or rail this region. Men who know whereof: {jiiey speak £»"© emphatic in the opinion that this portion of tropical Australia illimitable possibilities ji: modern developmental methods are adopted. '' Modern developmental method"" is a phrase easy to write, but it ' coiiriotes,- so far as the

Territory is cWcenied, a very great ex-

pense. A report on this neglected country lias besn tabled in the Federal House, iii ' wliioli'me;,'Government is urged to proceed on bolder lines —the latter to include extensive railway construction. If such a bold policy as is outlined in the report is decided on, it will mean an outlay, of iThe figures are of themselyesstaggering enough to make the most spendthrift Administration hesitate before consenting to order such expenditure. But the Territory is essentially a region which demands a bold policy of development. Leagues and leagues of agricultural and pastoral lands are isolated far from road or railway, which run only to the fringe of the undeveloped acreage. If, instead of laying an enormously experi : sive_ line that will link up Premantle with Adelaide, for the purpose, of saving a couple of days in delivery of the mails, the track had been led almost direct north to Darwin, the, first great step towards the opening up of, the Northern Territory would have been taken. State jealousy ami selfishness have fought the direct northern route successfully. Representatives of Queensland ami New South Wales in the Federal Parliament wanted tlie Ntfrthern Transcontinental, but they wanted it diverted along the hinterlands of their States to join up with the State -railway systems. Such a diversion would involve the sacrifice of thousands of square miles of Commonwealth land, and is not to lie thought of. Ten millions sterling ..is a lot of money, especial!}' coming, as it -would come, on top of an expensive defence scheme, but it is not an exorbitant sum to pay for a huge area of land which, under modem methods, is capable of that tremendous development attributed by experts to the Territory, whose undoubted natural resources have as yet • been only superficially scanned.