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REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



jects of ours, although they do not 

 speak our language. Malta can no 

 longer hold them, so rapidly are they 

 multiplying. They are accustomed to 

 great heat, are industrious, and should 

 make good settlers. The only objec- 

 tion to them is that they come origin- 

 ally from Arab stock. Their ancestors 

 mixed so freely with the Italians that 

 the Maltese to-day is practically a 

 European. The objection to inviting 

 immigrants from Malta is that it might 

 be construed into an admission that 

 white settlement had failed ; but the 

 Maltese need be classed as aliens no 

 more than are other dwellers on the 

 northern shores of the Mediterranean. 



Can White Women Live in the Tropics? 



There are those who insist that it is 

 impossible for Anglo-Saxon races to 

 settle and multiply within a belt twenty 

 degrees north and twenty degrees 

 south of the Equator. Thus far it has 

 certainly not been done successfully 

 anywhere else in the world. The dif- 

 ferent conditions of an island continent 

 like Australia may, let us hope, make 

 it possible here. The most successful 

 colonists in the tropics have been the 

 Spanish, but the}' ha\e done it by mix- 

 ing freely with the natives they found 

 there, thus evolving practically a new 

 race, which would probably not be al- 

 lowed to enter Australia on the ground 

 that it was not pure white. Doctors 

 who have lived m North Queensland 

 are most dubious about any permanent 

 colonisation being possible b}- whites. 

 The first generation does well ; it is 

 the second and the third, and fourth, 

 if there is a fourth, which fails. If 

 women have to leave the country 

 during certain seasons of the year, 

 permanent settlement is clearly impos- 

 sible. Fortunately there are high 

 plateaux in the north, where white 

 colonisation may be not only possible 



but eminently successful. But for some 

 time at any rate it is evident that the 

 rest of Australia will have to pay, and 

 pay pretty highly, to assist those 

 pioneers who are endeavouring to fill 

 the North with a white race, and there 

 is no doubt that she will cheerfully do 

 this. 



Unifying the Railways. 



The Inter-State Conference of Rail- 

 way' Engineers has issued its recom- 

 mendations with regard to the railways 

 in the Commonwealth. It urges the 

 adoption of the 4 ft. 8i in. gauge, and 

 suggests that the trunk lines be al- 

 tered at once. The question of cost 

 has apparently been the deciding fac- 

 tor in favour of the small gauge. To 

 unif}' all lines to it would cost 

 i^37,ooo,ooo, to unify to the far more 

 serviceable 5 ft. 3 in. gauge would cost 

 no less than XS/, 000, 000. The unifi- 

 cation of the trunk lines, including a 

 new line from Brisbane to the N.S.W. 

 border, would cost ^^^13,500,000. None 

 of the State Ministries appear eager 

 to begin the work, but the Conference 

 points out that the longer the delay 

 the greater the ultimate cost. We are 

 ruing now the jealousies which gave 

 each State a separate gauge. Let us 

 hope that in adopting the 4 ft. 8J, in. 

 standard we are not la}'ing up trouble 

 for our children's children! 



The Landing of Captain Cook. 



The one little bit of history about 

 which Australians can perhaps pride 

 themselves more than any other is the 

 landing of Captain Cook in Botany Bay 

 from H.M.S. "Endeavour," at 3 of the 

 clock in the afternoon of April 28, 1770. 

 It was virtually the beginning of days 

 for Australia, and the anniversary of 

 the event must ever remain the biggest 

 day in Australia's calendar. It stands 

 recorded in Cook's Voyages that on 



