A WHITE AUSTRALIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19497, 4 June 1925, Page 9

A WHITE AUSTRALIA

CONDITIONS IN THE NORTH,

TROPICAti HYGIENE ESSENTIAL

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

SYDNEY, June 3. Sir George Buchanan, the noted British consulting engineer, who recently toured Queensland and the Northern Territory, preparatory to reporting upon the harbours of Australia, was unfavourably impressed by the conditions under winch the white population are living. Ho declared that white labour in the north is not so efficient as is black labour in other countries. Sir George Buchanan attributes this to unhygienic' conditions and unsuitable diet. tie suggests that the remedy lies in freeing Northern Australia from party politics. Ho favours a scheme of 'development which would cover a period of years. He considers that the White Australia policy is ideal, and is deserving of the greatest encouragement, but as lie saw it in the north it was neither efficient nor economic, this was largely attributable to the insanitary life led by the people. The of the women particularly was deplorable. “What Australia is aiming at,” he said, “cannot ho achieved without the help of healthy and happy women. Under the present conditions it is impossible successfully to settle the country or to grow cotton and sugar to compete with the outside world. The only remedy is in the education of the people in tropical hygiene and feeding, and State insistence upon suitable housing.”