PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 605 



structure is originally referable to the action of the sunlight. In many 

 instances creatures living for generations in davkness become white, 

 pigmentless, and they regain the pigment Avhen exposed to light. The 

 white, colorless Proteus from the caves of Adelsberg become clouded 

 grey, and ultimately become black when kept in a tank whence light 

 is not strictly excluded. Blindness is a very general characteristic 

 of creatures which dwell in darknes?." In his " Evolution of Man " 

 (vol. II., pp. 180-183) Hseckel strikingly points to the analagous methods 

 of nature in providing colored skins for the apes — from whom man is 

 believed by all leading modern ethnologists to be descended — indigenous 

 to the tropics and sub -tropics respectively. He Avrites — " Both the 

 African man-like apes are of black color, and, like their countrymen, 

 the negroes, have the head long from back to front (dolichocephalic). 

 The Asiatic man-like apes, on the contrary, are mostly of a brown or 

 yellowish-brown color, and have the head short from back to front 

 (brachycephalic), like their countrymen, the Malays and Mongols. 

 The largest Asiatic man-like ape is the well-known orang, or orang- 

 outang, which is indigenous to the Sunda Islands (Borneo and Suma- 

 tra), and is brown in color." 



Mr. Benjamin Kidd, in his " Control of the Tropics " (pp. 48-50), 

 says — " The attempt to acclimatise the white man in the tropics is 

 a blunder of the first ma.onitude. All experiments based on the idea 

 are mere idle and empty enterprises foredoomed to failure." Else- 

 where in the same volume the author remarks — " In South American 

 republics the pure white population appears unable to maintain itself 

 for more than a limited number of generations without recruiting itself 

 from the outside. The prospect is that ere long these countries will 

 be almost peopled with black and Indian races." In a recent contri- 

 bution to an American periodical, the same writer foreshadows coming 

 events thus — " As the economic pressure of civilisation to develop 

 the tropics continues, the cry is everywhere going up for races able to 

 sustain the burden of the development which the tropics are destined 

 to undergo. In response to this pressure it is possible that we shall 

 witness in the future almost as large movements of population in the 

 tropics as history has already witnessed in the temperate regions." 



Indorsing the views of the eminent scientific and practical 

 authorities already cited, Mr. Chamberlain, when Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies, expressed his belief that " the life and health of our 

 administrators in colonies where civilisation and the development of 

 resources can only be carried on by the labor of colored races working 

 under European supervision is a national asset." 



In the Melbourne Argus of November 30th, 190G, appeared a letter 

 from the manager of a large sugar mill in North Queensland, who 

 writes as follows : — " We engaged 10 gangs of canecutters, 10 in 

 each gang, and three gangs of white canecutters, making in all 130 

 men. We offered the best terms offered by any mill. A gang of 

 Chinamen working in similar cane cut three-quarters of a ton more 

 cane per man per day than the best white canecutters from any part. 

 After about three weeks' cutting we had one or two warm days — 84° 



