SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
We who are citizens of our Commonwealth of Australia stand 
in a peculiarly hazardous position in the restless, over-populated world 
of our day. A handful of population scattered over the -sea-fringe 
of the only empty habitable continent that remains. Clinging tenaci- 
ously to our sole right to populate this vast area of land, indisposed 
to invite others to share wth us the burden and the reward, unshak- 
ably opposed to sharing either with Orientals. We stand alone with 
our small neighbour New Zealand facing starving hordes of Orientals, 
now rapidly arming themselves with the educational resources, manu- 
factures, and death-dealing implements of Western civilization. The 
great centres of white population are twice the distance from us that 
our Oriental neighbours are, and they are subdivided and absorbed 
in mutual jealousies and suspicions. With these far-away friends who 
chance for the moment to regard our policies and our aspirations in 
a kindly or indifferent fashion—with this moral and potentially physi- 
cal support, the continuance of which none can guarantee—we assert 
in no measured terms our absolute ownership of our great estate and 
debar our starving, overcrowded neighbours from participation in it. 
At. the same time, we assert a high claim for leisure, for ease of circum- 
stances and comfort of living, for short hours and high wages, com- 
fortable sanitary dwellings, and elaborate expensive amusements. Oyr 
neighbours do without these things, and as they regard our riches 
‘and our comfort, our easy hours of work, and the infinite opportunities 
of our superabundant space, may they not be asking themselves, how 
long they shall starve while others have superfluity which they know 
not how to use, and a boundless estate which they know not how to 
populate ? 
We have, it is true, the priceless asset of our unsurpassable valour 
and of the memory of deeds which will be related with those of Ther- 
‘mopyle and Marathon in the immortal records of humanity. But 
what will unassisted valour avail if it should ever chance that five 
million find themselves opposed by four hundred million? ‘From odds 
of eighty to one backed by all the resources of a modern industrial 
civilization valour may not shrink, it is true, but prudence will seek 
allies. 
Where shall we look for assistance? Not from without; our views, 
to others, may appear unreasonable, extravagant, even Selfish. They 
have not to undergo the actual experience of invasion—they may not 
perceive our importance as we perceive it. Shifting policies, an inter- 
national agreement, or a fresh world war may leave us morally and 
physically without external support. Only from within can we find 
assistance. Only in the wealth of our country, realized to its utmost 
extent. Our brains, our versatility, resourcefulness, and adaptability, 
qualities which distinguish the Australians above all other peoples, 
must find expression in the uttermost exploitation of our resources. 
The mobilization of our intellectual forces is therefore the only 
avenue to salvation, and expressed in terms of daily existence, this 
means nothing more nor less than the utmost development of education 
and research. If one Australian is to accomplish as much as fifty 
Orientals in half their working day he must bring brains to his job 
he must employ every known means of increasing his efficiency, an 
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