Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1903-08-21
RISE OF A TOWNSHIP.
Tumut to Be Capital of Aus
tralian Federation.
SITUATED IN A FERTILE DISTRICT

Highly Cultivated and Well Water
ed, the Land About Tumut Is Little
Subject to Extremes of Climate
with Which Other Parts of the
Continent Are Familinr--AgricuI-
ture the Chief Industry.
The commissioners appointed to re-
port on the question of the federal cap
ital of the Australian commonwealth
seem to have exercised a rare discre-
ton in giving the very strongest rec
ommendation to the claim of Tumut
for the coveted honor, says the London
Standard. The place is, roughly, half
way between Sydney and Melbourne,
the two largest Australian cities, which
were both chagrined at losing the su-
preme right. Melbourne in possessing
palatial parliamentary buildings which
would have housed the federal legisla-
ture admirably-they have already
done so since the establishment of the
commonwealth-felt that it had very
tangible claim, while Sydney as the
oldest city and the capital of the moth
er colony was most tenacious of her
right. The statute finally decided that
New South Wales had the better claim
and enacted that the capital should be
placed within that state, not less than
100 miles from Sydney. Tumut is,
however, 300 miles distant from the
city of the beautiful harbor, and the
commissioners have thus given Mel
bourne an advantage of 200 miles from
the minimum, while favoring it, more
over, by fixing spot on the straight
line from Sydney to Melbourne.
The United States republic, when es-
tablishing federal capital, built it on
a swamp in the midst of the virgin for
est. The new commonwealth has TAX
en- another method Tumut is little
township of some 1900 inhabitants In
the center of a fertile and highly cult
waited plain. 1t stands high in valley
danking the mountains grouped round
Mount kosciusko, the eliminating
peak of the Australian continent. Well
watered to degree that is unusual in
places so far west, the district is little
subject to the extremes with which the
other parts of the continent are fanil-
lar. The Tumut river, fed by the Kos
ciuskan SHOWS and the steady springs
or its neighborhood, does not dwindle
almost to extinction, as do the rivers
OF the Never Never country" farther
west. In drought the latter become
mere chains of water holes-nay, even
disappear altogether under stress of q
succession of dry seasons Vegetation
IN Iumut does not become dry and
burned up, and the district is a resort
for stock from less favored regions
Agriculture is the chief industry. and
maize growing receives most of the at.
tention of the farmer. The fine quality
that characterizes Tumut maize is the
result OF careful cultivation and the ex
IRENE care taken by the people to pre-
vent the Intrusion of disease into Their
staple crop. The farmers agreed that
lhey should give up the use of old
sacks, in Which disease germs might
lurk, and they keep strictly to bags
bought straight from the factory. Mex
In Importance to Indian corn comes To-
bacco. The soil at Tumut has shown
itself most kindly to the culture. If IN
It's natural state Tumut tobacco would
prove somewhat overpowering, still
blended with American, an excellen,
mixture can be made with the Austria
liam weed
snch Is the quiet and secluded spo,