of Crown Lands (Mr. Glyde), who on the shady side of the House had spoken against annexation as a very equivocal benefit. They had deprecated the ambition of the Waterhouse Government in proposing to send stock overland, and within twelve months they shipped from Port Adelaide a full-blown colony, with Government Resident, Secretary, guard of honour and valet-de-chambre for His Excellency, Police and Police Inspectors, Surveyors and Surveyor Generals, labourers and gentlemen farmers — altogether a perfect specimen of a ready-made municipality. But hothouse colonization did not suit the climate of Adelaide River. Disgusted with two years' experience of it, we tried a little exploring again, and Mr. McKinlay spent a pleasant winter on the East Alligator River at the expense of the Northern Territory Fund. To complete the programme of dilettante colonization our only further requirement was a marine survey à la Marco Polo, which Captain Cadell has given us. Now we can turn round and conscientiously say to the land-order-holders — the would-be cotton-planters and paddy-cultivators of Adam Bay — that we have done our best for them in that particular direction. Had the Duke of Newcastle been alive, with what gusto might the land-order-holders have poured their grievances into his sympathetic ear ; what invidious comparisons might they not have drawn between the Queensland style of settlement and our own ! There on one side of the boundary is Escape Cliffs, with its abandoned stores hid away under tarpaulins, and "the old Chief Mira" as special constable keeping guard over them. On the other side is Burke Town, a flourishing depot for the squatting stations on the Plains of Promise. From Queensland stock has been allowed to eat its way gradually down the Flinders, the Cloncurry, and the Albert Rivers. It has not only cost nothing to the Brisbane Government, but has been a large source of profit to the country. From South Australia not a single head of cattle has entered Arnheim's Land, unless by sea, and after eating its head off half a dozen times over on the voyage, seventy thousand pounds spent on a four years' infatuation, and the net result is— two hundred pounds worth of marine stores left on Escape Cliffs as a souvenir of the Finniss regime ! If history could be expunged as easily as Parliamentary votes, the words "Northern Territory" would never more be seen in our annals. References