THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 121, 27 June 1914, Page 8

THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.

To the Editor of THE SUN. Sir, —I noted with a good deal of interest Mr Hamlet's letter re the Northern Territory, and also the editorial censure thereon: To the ordinary reader,/ however,. it would appear that Mr Hamlet has actually spent five months in the Northern Territory,"while you, Sir, are relying upon guide books for your information. In five months, an observer like Mr Hamlet would undoubtedly learn a lot that does not appear in guide books. Will he oblige his Canterbury friends by another tl»scriptive letter of points of interest in the vast .Northern Territory, which has on interest for us inasmuch as it is administered by a former New Zealand giant, Professor Gilruth. Be the rarity of the rainfall, which you dispute with Mr Hamlet: Some years ago I read ?n a Government publication regarding West Australia that the annual rainfall around the coast about Perth was 28 to

31 inches- (i.e., about equal-to Canter* bury's). The day 1 arrived iiil Perth the first rain fell for six months and two days! Thereafter it feH fairly consistently in bucketfuls for , the rest of the winter,- the ground drying up immediately it ceased. The rainfall was there all right, but it fell all at one time, and water had to be stored from one winter to another. Probably what I is true of West Australia is true of the Northern Territory. And let us hope J that history will repeat itself. Let the residents or pioneers in ; the Northern Territory find another Coolgardie within their country as West Australia did, and we shall hear no more of the Chinese fright or dearth of population in ihe Northern Territory. In the meantime, \ as one of the newspaper-reading public, -may I say that I welcome And read with avidity such letters as Mr Hamlet's— " the truth from the man on: the spot. —• I am, etc., A. A. JOHNSON, Lower Eiccarton.

To the Editor of THE SUN".

Sir. I have read with interest the remarks recently appearing in THE SUN on the above subject, more by reason of the fact that I, too, have seen something of this vast country, than anything of outstanding information or alarm from the perusal of Mr Joseph Hamlet's remarks thereon. To one at this great distance from that portion of the globe Mr IJarty's crypt description gives the unacquainted stay-at-home the better idea concerning it. It is a hege country with unlimited potentialities, and like everything colossal, it will attract and supports its like. Its vast area offers opportunity, for vast undertakings, and some day doubtless , vast fortunes will be niade. : And, as a natural 'corollary, some will be lost,; in the developing of this giant. To eoin a term, pioneering a small land-might | lesult in making some fairly, wealthy people, but in"simila'r development upon « huge land, the issiie-is more generous and-millionaires spring up as do mushrooms on the Qhevipt Downs. I. am. afraid .'thatyour correspondent, Mr Hamlet, has been quoting niore from fiction- ; than /from s aetual -Experience when he tells us of-the lengthy-Flinders-Mitchell grass. Perhaps he had in mind some stupid exaggerations he culled from such piffing hovels as 1 'The Big Fire," "The Northern: Streak," and similar stories in , ; whieh..- the ; hero and heroine and lesser characters jir.e chased by black and buffalo until their twitching scalps are lifted bjr the" krisses and scimitars of the Yellow Easterners who have taken, .unto, themselves „the Silver Northern fringe. I did not mean to encroach even to this extent upon yibfir valuable inches, but I am afraid that Mr Hamlet is just a little too- boisterously inclined: to rush into print, with a number of strung-to-gether phrases, not altogether original, tor the'purpose of padding much verbiage around two or three assertions on :i subject he is not we'll grounded in. A meteoric dash in a motor car in the direction of north does not give one tho Diploma of Explorer of the Northern Territory. On the other' hand, 'the fireside traveller who wades through. such scuff as "The Big Fire'' -ami kindred revels for data for-his argument would jnor.© profitably employ his leisure by communicating with Dr Gilruth to be served with some pamphlets to glean a little knowledge of this subject.—l am, t-ic., •

C. H. STONE.