#3. The Northern Territory.#--In 1864 the Northern Territory was added
to the dominion of South Australia, and from Adelaide an expedition was
despatched by sea to the shores of Van Diemen's Gulf, in order to form a
new settlement. After many difficulties, caused chiefly by the disputes
between the first Government Resident, or Superintendent, and the
officers under him, a branch colony was successfully founded at Port
Darwin, opposite to Melville Island. This settlement has become a
prosperous one: all the fruits and grains of tropical countries flourish
and thrive to perfection; gold has been discovered; and it is asserted
that there exist in the neighbourhood rich mines of other metals, which
will, in the future, yield great wealth, while the stations that are now
being formed are peculiarly favourable to the rearing of cattle and of
horses. Yet the number of people who settle there continues small on
account of the very hot climate; Palmerston, the capital, is as yet a
town of only a few hundred inhabitants, and all the really hard work of
the district is done by Chinese.

#4. Overland Telegraph.#--In a previous chapter it has been described how
M'Douall Stuart, after two unsuccessful efforts, managed to cross the
continent from Adelaide to Van Diemen's Gulf. Along the route which he
then took, the people of South Australia resolved to construct a
telegraph line. A gentleman named Charles Todd had frequently urged the
desirability of such a line, and in 1869 his representations led to the
formation of the British Australian Telegraph Company, which engaged to
lay a submarine cable from Singapore to Van Diemen's Gulf, whilst the
South Australian Government pledged itself to connect Port Darwin with
Adelaide by an overland line, and undertook to have the work finished by
the 1st of January, 1872. Mr. Todd was appointed superintendent, and
divided the whole length into three sections, reserving the central
portion for his own immediate direction, and entrusting the sections at
the two ends to contractors. It was a daring undertaking for so young a
colony. For thirteen hundred miles the line would have to be carried
through country which never before had been traversed by any white men
but Stuart's party. Great tracts of this land were utterly destitute of
trees, and all the posts required for the line had to be carted through
rocky deserts and over treacherous sand-hills. Todd had, with wonderful
skill and energy, co