TROPICAL LIFE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 7 August 1924, Page 5

TROPICAL LIFE.

SUITABLE FOR WHITES. NO INSURMOUNTABLE OBSTACLES. BT CABLE —PBIBB ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT OTTAWA, Aug. 5. Professor J. W. Gregory, of Glasgow University, delivering his presidential address before the geographical section of the British Association for the Advancement' of Science, in session at Montreal, said that, scientifically speaking, there was no insurmountable obstacle to the colonisation of tropical countries by the white race. The wisest measure in the case of Australia would undoubtedly be the occupation of the entire continent by Europeans. It was now an accepted medical opinion that not one of the supposed unfavourable factors in a tropical climate, namely, heat, humidity, monotony in temperature, or the , ' effect of the sun’s actinic rays, is in l. itself an obstacle to successful white colonisation of the tropics. White colonies existed for long periods in Guayaquil and Brazil. Professor Gregory pointed out that the vital statistics of Queensland compared favourably with other parts of Australia, and the failure of Northern Australia \to support a white population had economic rather than climatic explanations. The speaker admitted that white colonists could not successfully occupy the land near the crowded parts of Asia or the land accessible to fast multiplying negroes in Africa. The future of white colonists in South Africa was uncertain, and segregation there offered the only possible solution. Segregation, however, was more a palliative than a cure. The policy of co-residence with racial integrity had failed to" secure harmonious progress in North America and South America, for the development of the best qualities of the white and black races required their separate existence as a whole, with opportunities for individual association and co-operation. “Australia, in view of inter-racial difficulties that develop wherever races are intermingled, will throiv away a unique opportunity if it fails to make ■patient efforts to secure the entire continent as the home of the white race,” concluded the speaker.