Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/187

 The Railway-Builders ADELAIDE AND VICINITY i6i settlements, also of 500,000 acres of country land, was completed by 1870. In the meantime, most of the English land-order holders had demanded the return of their money. The Government resisted, but in later years — in obedience to a judge and jury, whose verdict was confirmed by the Full Court, and subsequently, on appeal, by the Privy Council — they had to pay back about ^^40,000 in principal and interest. In March, 1870, Captain Bloomfield Douglas, R.N., was appointed Government Resident in the Northern Territory ; and in May the purchasers who were willing to retain their land-orders took a ballot for the choice of land. Government offices were opened at Palmerston, Port Darwin, and a few score people went there to reside. In 1872, owing to rumors of gold discoveries, several parties of men were sent to the Territory. Some of them secured good returns, and immense sums of money were spent in quartz-reefing and machinery. From time to time Parliament has devoted considerable attention to the Northern Territory, and also to vote it large sums of money. Maize, sugar, cotton, and other tropical products are, or can be, grown there, while stations for stock-rearing have been established. It is a country rich in minerals, and yet little progress has been made in its settlement. The forma- tion of a colony at Port Darwin probably led South Australiii to look more kindly on the mammoth scheme to span the continent with an electric wire, so as to connect with Europe and Great Britain. The reader of John McDouall Stuarts journals will appreciate the extreme difficulties |of the task of carrying the wire over the central barren and burning wilderness. To Mr. H. B. T. Strangways and his Ministry, supported by the enthusiasm of Governor Fergusson and many members of Parliament, the Province owes the projection of this continent-bridging and globe-connecting line. They introduced a Bill in 1870 providing for its construction, the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company agreeing to put down a cable from Singapore to Batavia, and from Banjoewangie to Port Darwin. The estimated cost from Port Augusta to Port Darwin was £80 per mile, or i: 120,000 for the entire distance. The supervision of the construction was entrusted to Mr. Charles Todd— now Port Darwin Hospital