Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 174, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1917 — Deserts Are Disappearing Before March of Progress. [ARTICLE]

Deserts Are Disappearing Before March of Progress.

At the present time there are many young Australians who are reaping good crops from areas which were marked on the maps as “deserts" when these young fellows went to school in Australia; in fact, some of the most prosperous districts were not long ago shown on the school maps as “deserts" or uninhabited spaces, but as settlement has pushed on, and the landseeker has had to go farther foj his selection, these blanks havebeen filled with prosperous settlements?' Thriving towns are growing here and. there, and, instead of being shown as “deserts,” the school children in Australia are being taught the names of these agricultural towns. The same

thing applies to Australia as a whole. :Maps get out of date rapidly on account of the changes being effected throughout the country. Active railway construction policies are assisting the settler, and before many, years have passed spaces now uninhabited — through being almost inaccessible — will be shown as scenes of activity and prosperity.