Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1910-12-01
CannibaIs Still Raraain in Austria
Iian Desert.
Not Many Visitors to Australia Tempt
ed to Penetrate Center of Country
Everybody Says lis Vast
Unexplored Region.

New York.-If you have a mind to
visit Australia it might be just as we'll
to keep away from the center of the
continent, according to D. G. Cameron,
a Scotchman who has lived out there
for 20 years and who is now at the
Imperial Especially would Mr.. Cam
eron be disposed to recommend that
you refrain from travelling alone.
Why? Cannibals.
Not that many visitors to Australia
are tempted to penetrate the center of
the country. Everybody says it's a
vast unexplored region, deserA But
sometimes a man goes out prospect
ing and is never heard Of again. and
then down to civilization come tales
OF how the bones of what had appar-
emily been white man had been
found bleaching about the remains of
camp fire, and then bit by bit the
fact comes out that the solitary seek
er for gold had fallen into the hands
OF some of the first families of the
country and made contribution to
the aboriginal table d'hote.
1t wasn't to tell about this that Mr..
Cameron came to New York He is a
sober, practical business man, and he
is in the United States to see how
milk is manufactured here. Not the
calcereous beverage obtained by treat
ment of disaphanizomenated aqua Gro
tona that used to findsa ready market
here before some New Workers had
heard about COWS, but powdered milk.
They are going to start new manu-
featuring industry in Australia and
Mr.. Cameron is the general manager
Of the company and he is travelling to
get points.
Our factory is being built at a place
about 125 miles from Melbourne" said
Mr.. Cameron. Within a radius of
four miles from it there are yielded
pounds Of milk. That, of course, Is a
great cattle country; and there are a
lot of butter factories. Of course a
great part of the milk produced is con-
sumed by the butter factories; in the
spring the supply is such that the
waste cannot be consumed by the
calves and pigs in the neighborhood,
to which it is fed. We are building a
plant to cost $4,000, and an English
engineer is installing machinery.
have been visiting factories in Canada
and Syracuse and l am now going over
to England to study the process there.
We shall begin on small scale, but
we expect the far east to furnish a
great market.
Big holdings of land in Victoria
are rapidly going out, the big estates
being rapidly divided into smaller
properties and sold off. Just month
before l left an estate of 1900 acres
was divided up and sold, and a great
deal of it realized $500 an acre This
was not for city lots, mind you, or
orchard land, but for what had been
dairy land for some years. A curious
thing about the sale was that the peo-
pie who bought were all residents of
the district.
What we call the bush is not so
far from Melbourne on one side" said
Mr.. Cameron in answer to a question
LII 1cSCIS IL 1ICo O1Iy dDOut Thirty ull16S
to the west. The aboriginal inhabitants
are very few now and most of them
are kept in colonies by the govern
ment, corresponding somewhat to
your Indian reservations. In parts of
western Australia, l should say near
the center of the continent, the blacks
are savages, and like their bit of hui
man flesh at times They are not a
fighting lot and l don't believe they
kill and eat one another to any extent,
but an occasional prospector gets in
among them and realizes his mistake
too late.
They are very fond Of Chinese, too,
and if a Celestial gets among them
they are apt literally to devour him
There used to be lot more of Chinese