NORTHERN TERRITORY

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6438, 15 January 1924, Page 1

NORTHERN TERRITORY

“A COUNTRY FOOLED WITH”

FEDERAL MEMBER’S WARNING

Mr Cook, M.H.R., who was a member of the sectional committee of the Federal Public Works Committee which recently circumnavigated the Commonwealth, has returned to Melbourne impressed with the possibilities of the Northern Territory, but disappointed with the past failures to open up the country. He said that business was very dull at Darwin, where the population had been considerably reduced. Vestey’s meat works, which had cost £950,000, had been idle for more than a year, as a result of low prices and industrial troubles. Some of the workmen had received up to £7O per month.

“The country has been fooled with, and every additional year of muddling will bring us closer to disaster,” said Mr Cook. “If we do not act others may. The settlement of the north is a gigantic problem, but must be faced with courage. In its present state it is a menabe to our national existence. What is needed is co-operation between the Commonwealth and . the States in evolving sounder land laws and providing water supplies, railways, roads and ports. A progressive policy will convert this large ‘tax eating’ territory of the north into self-supporting provinces that will contribute largely to the wealth of the nation.”