o 
. 
E.—GEOGRAPHY. 1438 
appears probable that this colony is mainly of Dutch stock, and has kept 
its physical characteristics undamaged by the two-and-a-half centuries of 
residence only eight degrees from the Equator. 
Many cases of the decadence or extinction of ill-placed European 
colonies in the tropics are of course known, such as the Bahamas, as 
described by Professor Ellsworth Huntington. Such misfortunes have been 
regarded as evidence of the inevitably injurious effect of the tropical 
climate on white men. But if white colonies have maintained good 
health in the tropics, the failures are not caused by climate alone. 
5.—Tue DEVELOPMENT OF TROPICAL AUSTRALIA. 
The experience of colonization in tropical Australia is limited to about 
seventy years; but it affords no ground for the expectation that the 
ultimate effects on the white race will be detrimental. 
(a) Vital Statistics in Queensland.—In Queensland, most of which is 
tropical, the death-rate is lower than in any European country and is 
lower than in most of extra-tropical Australia. In the six years 1915-21, 
according to the statistics in the Australian Year-book (No. 15, 1922, p. 99), 
the crude death-rate in Queensland was the lowest in the six Australian 
States for one year, and fourth of the six States in three years, and the 
fifth in three ; it was not once the highest. In the same six years the in- 
fantile death-rate was lowest in Queensland in three years, and the second 
lowest in two others. According to the same authority, by Index of 
Mortality (i.e. the death-rate in proportion to the ages of the community), 
Queensland was in 1921 the second State in order of merit, being inferior 
only by 03 to New South Wales, the State most favoured in this respect. 
The physical vigour of the Queenslander is shown by his athletic 
prowess, and by the low rejection-rate of recruits from that State for the 
Citizen Army. The longevity in Queensland may be judged by the 
experience of the life assurance offices. It has often been asserted that 
assurance rates show that tropical climates are unhealthy. Yet the chief 
actuary for the greatest Australian assurance company, the Australian 
Mutual Provident Society, reported to the Committee of the Australian 
Medical Congress, ‘ I have no hesitation in saying that as far as we know 
at present there is no need for life assurance offices to treat proponents 
_ who live in North Queensland differently from proponents who live in 
other parts of Australia.’ 
Physical and mental degeneration in a people living under unfavourable 
conditions would probably be most readily observed in the children. To 
use this clue I asked the Queensland Education Department whether its 
_ inspectors had noticed any unfavourable symptoms among the children 
in the most tropical of its northern schools. The Department replied 
_ that on the contrary its schools at Cairns and Cooktown, two of the most 
_ northern towns, are exceptionally efficient and one of them is sometimes 
_ the leading school in the State. 
(b) Northern Territory—The great success of Queensland, although 
more than half the State is within the tropics, renders the more striking 
the failure of the adjacent Northern Territory of Australia, of which the 
records are disappointing. Agriculture has declined; the Government 
demonstration farms have been reduced to native reserves; the meat 
