SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—E. 409 
authority and the control of public funds. The system has been criticised, but 
compares favourably with its alternative. 
The time has now come to consider the ultimate development of this system by 
central advisory native councils in the political sphere, and how far it is possible to 
adapt religious teaching to African conceptions of the spirit world by missionaries 
and education departments. 
The effect of contact with white settlers in East Africa and the problem of the 
different systems of political development of the two races affords a special field of 
study which is being explored by various research institutions. This should throw 
new light on the great changes which are taking place in African life and thought and 
the organisation of African society. 
Friday, September 25. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by the Right Hon. Sir Hatrorp J. Mackinper, 
P.C., on The Human Habitat (see page 96). 
Prof. GrirritH TayLor.—The Geographer’s Aid in Nation-planning. 
The writer was for more than a dozen years the only professional geographer in 
Australia. The paper deals therefore with the growth of geographical knowledge in a 
new land and with its bearings on national problems in Australia. The science was 
founded mainly on the sound geological training given by two men, Sir Edgeworth 
David in Sydney and Prof. J. W. Gregory in Melbourne. The latter produced 
perhaps the first scientific geography (a study of Victoria) in 1903. The writer was 
appointed lecturer in Economic Geography at Sydney University in 1907, and held 
allied positions most of the time thereafter until 1928. 
In those early days there was available a large fund of information as to the 
rainfall of Australia and a general knowledge of the geological structure of the 
continent. But details of the factors controlling settlement had not been worked 
out. The address points out the various lines of research adopted by the writer in 
attempting to account for the large area of ‘Empty Australia.’ In 50 per cent. of 
the continent there lives less than one per cent. of the population. Three major 
factors account for the empty character of this large area. The very restricted 
_ season of rainfall, the great wnreliability in much of the area, and lastly the edaphic 
features (mainly the distribution of vegetated dunes—chiefly controlled by geological 
considerations) are very important factors in our problem. 
An examination of the growth of population shows very clearly that the 
Australian is unconsciously exemplifying the geographical controls. Of recent years 
there has been either no growth or actual diminution in much of the tropical and arid 
parts of this great new land. Method of comparing climates by new graphs (called 
hythergraphs) are illustrated. These show that large areas in north and western 
Australia have very similar climates to those in the south of India, in the northern 
Sahara and in inland Nigeria. Yet many Australians believe that important white 
settlement is possible to-day in such Australian areas. 
A second great problem is that of ‘ White Australia.’ The writer has always had 
much sympathy with the endeavours of a young nation to keep as free as possible 
from racial complications. At the same time he felt it proper that Australians 
should know something of the racial and social data of such peoples as the Chinese 
_ and Japanese. This led him to many years of ethnological research, in which he came 
_ to the conclusion that probably the peoples of the centre and east of Eurasia are a 
di 
at 
later development of the human race than most of those in western and southern 
_ Europe. This view was naturally not palatable to many good Australians. 
? 
Further research of a comparative nature enabled me to give a first approximation 
to future white settlement in the empty areas of the world. Using Europe to-day as 
__ a criterion with 500 millions of people, it seems likely that North America (if desired) 
_ could support 700 millions, while Australia could support some 60 millions. This 
gives us a clue to the relative values of two great centres of future white settlement. 
The meaning of the word ‘ Desert’ roused much controversy, mostly ill-informed it 
seemed to the writer. As the writer has shown, about 42 per cent. of Australia is 
arid (though half of this is fair pastoral country in good seasons) ; another 30 per cent. 
