WHITE MEN IN THE TROPICS 105 



labour could not stand the field work is blown into thin air by the 

 practical experience of thousands of white labourers all along the 

 coast. The black labour question is settling itself ; it is only a 

 matter of time until the sugar industry can entirely do away with 

 Kanaka labour." 



This experiment in Queensland really settles the 

 question. 



The fact is that white men can live and work anywhere 

 in the tropics, if they are obliged, and unless they are 

 obliged they will not, as a rule, work even in the most 

 temperate regions. Hence, wherever there are inferior 

 races, the white men get these to work for them, and the 

 kinds of work performed by these inferiors become infra 

 dig. for the white man. This is the real reason why the 

 myth, as to white men not being able to work in the 

 tropics, has been spread abroad. It applies in most cases 

 to agricultural work only, because natives can usually be 

 got to do this kind of work, while that of the skilled 

 mechanics has usually to be done by white men. And 

 another reason is that it is only by getting cheap labour in 

 quantity that fortunes can be made in most tropical 

 countries. But when people come to recognize that the 

 fortune-makers, whether by gold mining, speculating or 

 any of the various forms of thinly- veiled slavery, are not 

 by any means the happiest, the healthiest or the wisest 

 men, whereas those who really work, under the best 

 conditions, so as to receive the whole produce of their 

 labour, may be both healthy and happy, will usually live 

 longer and enjoy life more, and by working in association 

 may obtain all the necessaries and comforts of existence 

 then the enormous advantage of living in the best parts 

 of the tropics will become evident. For not only is nature 

 so much more productive that equal amounts of produce 

 may be obtained with half or perhaps a quarter of the 

 labour required in northern lands, but the essentials of a 

 happy and an easy life are so much fewer in number. 

 Houses may be slighter and far less costly ; clothing may 

 be reduced to less than half what is required here ; fuel is 

 only wanted for cooking ; while the enjoyability of the 

 early morning hours is so great that everybody rises 



