TROPICAL AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18413, 20 June 1925, Page 15

TROPICAL AUSTRALIA.

CONDITIONS OF LIVING.

VISITOR'S STRICTURES.

hu> oca owx cckftiEsfOxsurt.) SYDNEY, June U\ A man of rare moral courage is S«r George Buchanan, a famous British en gineer, who was brought out to Austrjlia by the Commonwealth Governrnen: to report on porta and harbours. Besides being an engineer. Sir George ii an observant traveller, and widely experienced in affairs of the world. Travelling with his eyes open, and not afraid to state his opinions about Aus tralia, however distasteful they migh: bo to Australians, ho has come into conflict with other authorities over h'u expressed views. A statement of hj:» reflecting on the efficiency ef the Queensland railways roused tho ire of tho Queensland Minister of Railway.:. whoso reply, dealing with generalities and not tho specific points mentioned by Sir Goorge , was hardly convincing to tho impartial observer. A greater controversy was awakened by this critienl visitor when he commented on life in tropical Australia. Among his statements was one that tJ»o unhygienic and insanitary, living an:l housing conditions prevalent in the north, with an unsuitable diet, wer." responsible for producing in whites a lower state of efficiency than was shown by black labour in other countries. People in tho Northern he declared, lived under conditions quit.* unsuitable to the tropics: the working classes, for tho most part, dwelt in housoß little better than tin boxes. which in the rummer were like oven*. Tho residents there, he also said, drank too much liquor. These sweeping statements inspired spirited defences of the North by men in official positions. True, Mr Bruc* agreed with Sir George Buchanan in most .matters, but Mr Nelson, who represents the Northern Territory in th? Federal Parliament, was hotly resentful of tho visitor's strictures, although he, too, agreed that the housing conditions were mostly unsuitable. Mr Nelson clinched his argument by challenging Sir George to produce a team of any coloured people he eared to select against a white team from the Northern Territory, at, say, railway cutting. Mr Nolson was euro that tho work of the white would work out 50 per cent. cheaper than that of tho coloured gang. But the straightest answer to Sir Georgo Buchanan came from I>r J. £>. C. Elkington, Director of Tropica! Hygiene, Commonwealth Department of Health. Careful observations, said Dr. Elkington, showed that Northern families neither died out nor degenerated, nor did they show any evidence of commencing degonerntion up to the third generation. JTho tropic-born woman was as healthy ns tho woman born elsewhere in Australia. Life insurance records showed that their chances of longovity were rather greater thaji.elsewhere in Australia. Industrial records showed that they could outwork any non-British race in the sugar-cane fields under the ordinary present conditions of living. Australia is proud of her ideal of a Whito Australia, and of her experiment of attempting to develop the tropical north by means of white kAour. Consequently, a visitor who criticises her efforts in this direction is asking for | controversy, as the late Lord Levcrhulinc discovered on hia visit here last year. Now another famous Briton has crossed verbal swords with Australia** spokesmen, and the general public is left wondering who is right.