proved. I beg to call your attention to the 

 one of the best infoi rned authorities, Dr. A. Breinl (Director 

 of the Federal Tropical Diseases Institute at Townsville), 

 who states that alcoholism and other debilitating habits 

 did much more harm to the sugarcane cutters in Queens- 

 land than the hard work itself. 



We have in general not enough of reliable statistical data 

 illustrating the vital conditions of the tropical indigenous 

 races and of the immigrants from China and Japan. It is 

 something egotistical in the fact, that a close attention 

 is paid only to the white element in the tropics, and that 

 we have not enough material for a reliable comparison as 

 to the conditions prevailing among the other races within 

 the tropics. But there is a great probability, that the 

 mortality and ill-health among the indigenous tropical 

 population, and among the Chinamen is even greater than 

 among the white population, since the sanitary conditions 

 in which they live are generally bad, and especially the 

 exposure to epidemics is no doubt much greater. 



As far as Australia is concerned I would like to ask your 

 attention to the following points : — Tropical Australia up 

 to the present, generally speaking, is much healthier than 

 any other tropical country. The aboriginals were a remark- 

 ably healthy race, and the European element does not 

 introduce the true tropical evils. But there is a numerous 

 element of alien Asiatics, who continue to live in their 

 most insanitary way also in this country, and that element 

 is to be considered a* responsible if some tropical epidemics 

 should be introduced into this continent. It is no doubt a 

 fact that the Chinamen have brought the dreadful " Beri- 

 Beri " disease into the Northern Territory, which spreads 

 also among the white population, as some deplorable cases 

 show. Mostly through the intercourse with Chinamen, 

 syphilis and venereal diseases became widely spr.-ad 



