PROCREDINGS OF SECTION F. 597 



The high authorities already quoted recommend that the growing 

 of rice should be specially encouraged, as the Territory is found to be 

 pre-eminently adapted for this product, " being the only known country 

 in the world where the rice plant is indigenous." (" Land-grant Rail- 

 way," &c., p. 16.) 



The Territory is a promising field for the culti\-ation of sugar, 

 coffee, tea, tobacco, cocoanuts, indiarubber, jute, ramie, sisal hemp, 

 Manilla hemp, arrowroot, tapioca, maize, peanuts, spices, medicinal 

 plants, African oil, cotton, ginger, and many other tropical and sub- 

 tropical products. Yet, in the face of these proved facts, Sir John 

 Forrest, in his budget speech as Federal Treasurer, made the following 

 unpatriotic and misleading statement : — " I am not carried away by 

 the cry of some persons that Australia is capable of carrying a popula- 

 tion of many hundreds of millions. I know very well that the interior 

 is arid." If Sir John's reputation as an Australian explorer rests on 

 this sweeping indictment of the country, I fear his name %^ill hardly 

 be venerated by posterity as that of a true prophet. But Dr. Holtze 

 and his son, Mr. Nicholas Holtze, both emphasize the fact that, for 

 the profitable cultivation of the products enumerated, colored labor 

 suited to the climate is indispensable. 



These statements are, of course, only preliminary to the vital 

 question which forms the chief topic of the present paper. That 

 question is — How can the tropical and sub-tropical area which consti- 

 tutes so vast a proportion of Australia be most effectively developed ? 

 I venture to maintain that the territory included in the heat-belt can- 

 not be effectively developed without the introduction of labor from 

 largely populated countries situated somewhere within that zone, 

 and adapted, by nature, for doing open air work under a vertical sun. 

 In choosing colored workmen I should be disposed to give the preference 

 to our Indian fellow-subjects, although in some respects it is believed 

 by many that Chinese and Japanese are more efficient in field labor. 



This may appear a bold assertion to those who are more familiar 

 with the cry of a " White Australia " than with the teachings of science 

 on the subject. 



Within the last few weeks a report by Dr. Ramsay Smith, Chairman 

 of the Central Board of Health and permanent head of the Health 

 Department of South Australia, was presented to the Chief Secretary 

 of the State, giving the results of a hasty four weeks' sojourn in the 

 Northern Territory. The document seems extraordinary from a strictly 

 scientific point of view, and is totally at variance with the collective 

 testimony of numerous high authorities. Dr. Ramsay Smith's state- 

 ments only bear relation to the subject I am dealing with in so 

 far as he propounds the novel doctrine that " there is nothing in the 

 whole science and practice of medicine to show that white men, as 

 individuals and races, cannot live in the tropics." He further contends 

 that " the acclimatisation of the indi\adual takes usually about two 

 or three years," and that certain white races, including Jews, Gipsies, 

 the nations of Southern Europe, and even the people of Northern 

 Europe, can bear the climatic severity of the tropics with greater 



