790 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
“In the West Indies, in latitudes 12 degrees to 18 degrees, there 
are pure white families who have been in the islands for 200 years — 
say, for six generations — and some of these are fine specimens 
of humanity, others are undoubtedly degenerated ; but why there 
should be so much difference in this respect between the East and 
West Indies, to the disadvantage of the former, I do not know, 
especially as for five months in the year there is a bracing climate in 
the East Indies which is unknown in the West Indies.” 
The stalwart West Indians, whom Sir Henry had in memory 
when he wrote, no doubt are of the planter class. We know under 
what favourable conditions their lives were spent; the children went 
home to England for school ; both fathers and mothers made frequent 
and lengthy visits to the old country. During their stay in the 
islands, in the royal days of sugar, all the means that could modify 
the effects of climate were adopted freely ; residence in the hills, suit- 
able houses, retirement in the hot hours, rational meals, all prevented 
nerve exhaustion, and preserved their type. 
The Anglo-Saxon in North Queensland, however, has got as far 
away from Britain as is in his power to get. No going home to school 
at six to eight years of age to grow up an English boy before the 
climate overcomes the racial influence ; no yearly trip for the parents 
after the season’s crop is finished and the year’s work is done. 
Nothing but the high-pressure exposure w ithout a break from January 
to January again. And what is the penalty to be exacted? Decline 
of the parents, with a progressive degeneration of the children ? 
In this connection I may quote here a short extract from a paper 
on “ The Migrations of the Races of Men considered Historically,” 
read by Professor James Bryce in 1892 — 
“It is, of course, possible,” he says, “that the great European 
peoples, or some of them, may after a few generations acquire the 
power of thriving in the two tropics, of resisting malarial fevers, and 
of rearing an offspring which need not be sent home to a cold climate 
during the years of boyhood. We may call it possible, because our 
experience is still too short to justify us in calling it impossible. But 
it seems so far from probable that, in considering the future of the 
leading and ruling races of the world, we must practically leave their 
permanent settlement in the tropics out of the question, and restrict 
our view r to the two temperate zones.” 
It may be said that the Indian climate is more enervating, the 
Indian heat more excessive, than we experience in North Queensland. 
But have we not, as in India, the liver diseases of men, the menstrual 
excesses of women, the anaemia, dyspepsia, neuralgia, and fevers 
common to both ? 
Have we not the rapid grow’th, emaciation, and narrow chest 
after the ages of six or seven? Have we not a death-rate amongst 
children sufficiently higher than that in sub-tropical and temperate 
Queensland to prove how undesirable is the outlook for our young 
fathers and mothers ? 
I extract from the Registrar- General’s reports for the past five 
years some portions of his remarks on mortality generally, and par- 
ticularly on that of children under five years of age. Of 1889 he 
writes : “ It has been considered by some that the climate of Queens- 
land is unfavourable to children, and the proportion of deaths of 
