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For the cause that lacks assistance
'Gainst the wrongs that need resistanct,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that we can do.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1963
VISION IN THE NORTH
AUSTRALIA HAS NEVER been lacking in
ideas and plans to develop the resources of the
North, and throughout our history there have been
men — hardheaded men as well as visionaries — to
urge that plans, good and bad, be put into practice.
Nearly a century and a half ago, hopes of material
gain and fear of the French led to settlements on
the northern coastline. Before the turn of the
century, the South Australian Government was
offering to throw the Northern Territory open to
settlement by Japanese immigrants; an offer not
taken up. For the colonies, and later the States,
it was first an impossible, then a difficult and dis
heartening, task to attempt to open up the distant
parts. Around the neck of the Commonwealth
Government itself hung the millstone of the
Northern Territory. The postwar years, however,
have seen a fresh and vital factor emerge: the new
financial strength of the Commonwealth. Today
there are not only rewards to be gained in the
North, and an empty land to be peopled and
defended — there are the resources to back up j
action. The resources are' there, and the time is
ripe.
It 'is in this climate that the Western Australian
and Queensland Governments have now taken the
most logical step in the world by consulting
together and forming a plan to put to the Common
wealth. This plan, as outlined by Western Australia's
Minister for Industrial Development and for the
North-West, Mr. Court, involves development of
W.A. north of the 26th parallel, all the Northern
Territory, and Queensland north of the Tropic of
Capricorn. A Northern Development Authority
would investigate, plan and recommend priorities
for major projects, which would be carried out (how
else?) largely by Commonwealth finance.
The plan is not new (private individuals and
the Federal Opposition, for example, have put
forward similar ones) but that it should now have
been taken up at Government level would be the
most exciting news in years but for one justifiable
note of caution. The Commonwealth's policy has
been to make grants for specific projects — dams,
beef cattle roads, rail lines, port facilities, and so on
— and to set its face against the idea of planned
development and priorities. It is a policy that has
failed to win many converts, and in view of the
continuing pressures, joint approach from States
east and west must be given the very deepest j
consideration. "It is," said Mr. Court, "one of the
biggest and most vital projects ever attempted in
Australia." It is: and if the details measure up to
the greatness of the general concept then it must
made to succeed.
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