CONCLUSION 739 



planted ? What about sago palms ? * And what about coco-nut 

 palms ? Granting that the Utingu coco-nut plantation, opposite 

 Possession Island, may be on exceptionally suitable (cleared) scrub 

 land (see Chapter XLVII), there are thousands of square miles of 

 luxuriant scrub (or jungle) in the Peninsula, and a still greater 

 area of brushwood and " heath," which latter could be inexpensively 

 cleared. The coco-nut palm, so far as I know, is not fastidious 

 in its demands for a rich soil. Its well-being seems to depend mainly 

 on climatic conditions. As a matter of fact, these palms have 

 been planted with success on many of the northern stations as well 

 as in the clearings surrounding the stations of the Cape York Tele- 

 graph line. A friend who has given much attention to the cultiva- 

 tion of fodder-stuffs suggests that cleared " wet desert " land might 

 profitably be sown with lucerne to be baled and exported for the 

 supply of drought-stricken, or at least less favoured regions. 



I have in my mind the instance of the Mallee Scrub, Victoria, 

 which the clearing of the scrub has transmuted into valuable wheat 

 land, although to all appearance the soil is little better than sand. 

 There is, in fact, one difference between the " Mallee Scrub " and 

 what has been popularly named, or nicknamed, the " wet desert," 

 and it is all in favour of the latter. Even where there is not much 

 to choose between the light and sandy soils of the two areas, the 

 northern desert, as its nickname implies, is abundantly watered. 

 It may be that, with the clearing of the present vegetation, some 

 or all of the " permanent " running streams will disappear in dry 

 seasons, but I am confident that even in that case shallow wells 

 would strike water. If so, the conditions in these northern 

 latitudes would be favourable to the close settlement of a white 

 agricultural or arboricultural population. But I should not 

 advocate the initiation of the experiment with day labour. I 

 hope, on the contrary, that it will one day be made by free men, 

 driven by the force behind and the innate impulse to explore new 

 fields, and assured that they or their offspring will be permitted 

 to reap the benefit of their industry and enterprise. 



1 See, however, the article by Professor I. Macmillan Brown on " The Curse of 

 Sago," in The Dutch East (London, 1914), in which the author argues convincingly that 

 the ridiculous ease with which a living can be made from sago cultivation makes for 

 the deterioration of the race and the depopulation of the region. 



