The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1911, AN AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14340, 12 January 1911, Page 4

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1911, AN AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM.

The Northern Territory,"whose administration has just been transferred from South Australia to the Oommonwealthi is five times as largo as New Zealand. It has a. decreasing population of about three thousand, and-while some reports declare that the land is mostly desert and tho climate unfit for white men, other observers state that immense areaH aye easily habitable, and these foretell a day when the wilderness, in many parts, will blossom ,as tho rose. For nearly fifty years the Northern Territory has been uh« dor the jurisdiction of South -Australia, which has taken very little interest in its distant charge. Only two Ministers for the' Territory over visited it, and according to, a Port, Darwin correspondent, tho government • might for all practical purposes have been from London. Thero is only one sound industry in the enormous area to-day—tho pastoral. There is no mining industry worth the name, no agriculture, while the pearl-shelling and fishing industries are on the decline. Over the whole history of South Australia's administration might.be written the word " Failure." If the fear of some Australians should bo realised, and thousands of rifle-boaring brown or" yellow men should swarm to-morrow into, tho vast Territory, thero would be nobody to hold them back./It is its huge dgfencelessnoss which makes tho control of the Northern Territory one of tho most serious responsibilities- which the Commonwealth has to face to-day. In taking over the administration, the Federal Government will become responsible for three millions of State loans in connection with the Territory, and for the construction of the much discussed trans-continental railway, which is to traverse it from south to north. ' The railway, which ought to do more than anything else to promote the settlement and agricultural development of tho northern waste, has-.been under way so long that it is nearly twenty years since a sleeper was laid down. A largo proportion of the members of tho Federal House of Representatives were by no means anxious to become responsible for its completion. Nevertheless, though tho Northern Territory has boon taken over by the Commonwealth without any'jubilation, thero are those who see a good development ahead of it, if a bold progressive policy is undertaken and steadily pursued. There must be no political appointment of an Administrator ; a strong man is essential, who shall be given active powers. It is suggested that the country should be classified, and largo pastoral areas offered to settlors at low rentals. Tho Administrator should bo supported by experts in agriculture geology, mining, and veterinary science, each at the hoad of departments organised on scientific lines. _ Of tho mining and other potentialities of the Territory, if they tan be developed, thero appears to bo no doubt. Tho declining industries and population of this'country, according to tho most hopeful view, have been duo almost as much to official neglect as to material disadvantages, and if neglect is superseded by a policy of strong development, the Territory may yet boast sufficient settlers to meet Australia's enemies in the gate if ever these should wish to force an entrance.