transcontinental railway has now been extended from Pine Creek to Katherine River, and the Government has decided to construct another section from Katherine to Bitter Springs.
Till lately, settlement has not progressed rapidly on the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the railway. It is hoped that the Northern Territory lands will be better developed as the trade in frozen beef develops. At present the mainstay of the state is beef-production. In an article on the Northern Territory in "Australia To-day," December, 1914, Mr. W. H. Clarke, late Director of Agriculture, states it as his opinion that: "The possibilities in this direction are not far behind those of Queensland, where the meat export industry is taxing already to the utmost the output of cattle." He goes on to say, however, "That many holdings have been stocked and abandoned, hundreds of leases have been taken up and forfeited. Men of sound experience and substantial means have tried the industry in different parts of the Territory, and given it up in despair. To-day some of the foremost cattlemen condemn the country outright, yet there are many stations carrying between them about half a million head of cattle." He explains the causes of this anomalous state of affairs by the distance from markets, "the waste
