TROPICAL AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 44, 16 November 1920, Page 3

TROPICAL AUSTRALIA

SETTLEMENT TROSPECTS PROBLEM OF THE ARID INTERIOR A strong plea for the • application of the methods of .scientific research to tho great pi-oblctn-t of settlement anil development which have, still to be soh-rd in Australia is made in nn article by Dr. Griffith Taylor, the new associate protestor of geography in the University of bydney, published in "Science and Industry." ITnder the heading of "Nature versus the Australian," Dr.' Taylor discusses tho natural resources of the Commonwealth and the physical factors hearing; on its future as-a'home of the white race. While ht- finds himself unable to assent to the optimistic predictions of politician? and others; more especially in the case of tropical Australia., Dr. Taylor comes to the conclusion that South-eastern Australia and A'ew Zealand are the nicst. favourable regions in the Southern Hemisphere for white settlement, and will ultimately, perhaps, bo able to support 120 persons to the squaro .mile. This -applies, however, (o a very limited area in Australia. Tho writer assigns to the British Empire a 'potential" white population of 377 000ftOfl. Of this only G2,"O0O,O0O are assigned to Australia and .New" Zealand, 179.000000 to British North America. 711,000,000 (o South Africa, and 00,000,000 to the tinitcd .Kingdom. It is estimated that, the United States can support 513,000,000 white people, and Argentina and other South American .countries 115,000,000. .The "first,and chief burden which«nature has laid on the Australian" is held to be the largo extent of the continent, which is exposed to the constant sweep of the dedicating trado winds. "Thero is little doubt," writes Dr. Taylor, "that a site, some ton geographical'degrees to tho south of our present, position would have made Australia a rival of the United States, whereas her nnturnl assets cannot compare with those of that country. Our latitude is. therefore, a severe handicap.* A further disadvantage is found in the small proportion, stated at i »er cent, of plateau countrv 2000 ft. or more above flip ffa, in tinnical Australia. A great futiiro is predicted for the -',000 fiqmre s,jl M 0 f rhp ..\ t herton tableland in North Queensland, but this stands almost alone as a.nucleus of white settlement, in tho tropics. The rainfall oi t.ne iMncuoniiell Range reVion, which lies on the edge of the tropics, is too ow. for a large population, and the highlands of the, lumberlcy resrion can never approach tho Atherton plateau in importance. Much has been said about the reclamation of the arid regions of inner Australia by means of irrigation, but Dr. Taylor will not admit (hat this, while ■ '.*■ may lead to the settlement of many thousands in favoured localities, can make any practical difference ii) the general character of a continental surface. There are about 1,000,000 souare miles in Australia with under 10 inches of rain a year, and the total area capable of irripa .ion. is reckoned at 1000 souare miles. WiHi the choicest sites (though not necessarily half of those available) occupied only one part in a thousand of the lands neoding -irrigation has l>eon benefited. As in artisian water, there, is little hope of is amounting to more than is needed for stock. .A statement in a "recent imposing publication" that there is no part of Australia in which culliv.itinn may not. become, ultimntolv possible is described as folly. Unless'with settlers pf the Indian Byot typo there is little hope of any cultivation of importance based on artesian wafer. With regard to mineral wealth, Dr. laylor attaches most, importance to coal. He points out that the coalfields ay,p distiibuted. along a belt from Hobart |o lownsville. and says that the chief settlement will always be round Svdnev, Monvcll, Brisbane, and in the Fitzroy basin. Hence rail, as well as climate, fftvofirs a centralisation of population in the south-east nnd er.et of Australia. In the matter of coal, resources, Australia ranks' fairly high", standing seventh on the list. The order, as quoted from Geological Congress reparta, is as follows:— United Stales. .18flS: Canada. ISM: China 9»5j Germany, 43.1; Britain, 189; Siberia, 173; Australia, 105. As to oilier metals, the idea that the unknown arid interior may contain another, gold field region like that extending f roni - Southern Cross to Laverfon and Cue is discounted on the ground that, the strata to the north of the Cue-Wilunn line are less disturbed and probably much newer. As to the settlement of the tropics it is maintained that the problem is a climatological one, and that money might well be spent on nil investigation along that line. Comparing tropical Australia with other regions, Dr. 'J'nvlor sars that Broome has a climate liVe that of Banana nt the_ mouth of Hie Congo, Carnarvon and Wiluna resemble German South-west Africa, Darwin is" like, Cnttnclc, on the fast const of India; Townsvillc rcsemb'es Calcutta or Bio do Janeiro, and Wyndham is like ,'t'innevclli, in the extreme south of India. Them aro. by the. way, four places in the world, VTyndham, Tinnevelli, Timbuctoo. and .Mn'ssownh. with nn average ammnl temperature of over 84 degree's F. "These parallels," writes Dr. Taylor, "must give pause to anyone who wishes to settle white women and children ou'our'tropieal nortuorn coasts."