AUSTRALIA'S NORTHERN TERRITORY.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13143, 27 June 1911, Page 1

AUSTRALIA'S NORTHERN TERRITORY.

The association of Professor Gilruth, who was for some years a valued officer of the Agricultural Depart- | ment of New Zealand, with an mi- ! portant expedition which is to leave Sydney in a few days to undertake research work in the Northern Territory of Australia, is a well-deserved tribute to his professional skill and attainments (says tho "Lyttelton Times"). The work of tho explorers will have to bo done under most trying conditions, since they will traverse largo tracts of almost unknown country and will be subject to all the ctil imiuences of a tropical climate, but Professor Gilruth's friends will expect him to accomplish much even in tho face of those great difficulties. IJio expedition to which he is attached will undertake the scientific research that is the necessary complement to tho investigations of a general exploration I party which went out into the wilderness a few months ago. Tho Commonwealth's knowledge of the groat territory which came into its possession this year is imperfect and uncertain, but it is a land of promise whoso development is awaited with keen interest. Of its 335,000,000 acres less than 100,000,000 acres are occupied, and in tho interior of tho Northern Territory there are vast tracts <if ■ country which in all probability will provide profitable fields for settlement. The areas that have been explored already have been found to be endowed with mineral wealth similar to that possessed by other portions of tho continent, there are large forests of valuable timber, and the experiments that have been made in the agricultural and pastoral industries have given promising results. At present there is reason to suppose that the torritorv will repay an active policy of development by white people, and the Commonwealth has guarded its own interests by securing all lint about 500,000 acres of its possession a gainst alienation. An urgent reason for the opening of tho country is the provision made in the Northern Territory Acceptance Act, which was passed by the Federal Parliament last year, for the construction of a transcontinental railway to connect with tho short railway running inland from Port Darwin. By means of this great railway and the trans-Siberian service passengers and mails could bo transported from Adelaide to London in seventeen days, and the shortness cf tho sea journey as woll as the ranidi+v of the service would tend to make it as popular as it would be useful. The expeditions which have been orgsmi«H by tho Federal authorities may be able to take tho first steps in revohitionis- i ing the methods of communication between Australia and the Motherland and in adding substantially to the wonderful progress and prosperity of the Commonwealth.