The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25th, 1924. “WHITE AUSTRALIA.”

Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25th, 1924. “WHITE AUSTRALIA.”

Jr is a matter for congratulation, rays till'} Sydney Herald, that scholarship* arc now awarded hy several Australian universities for original research in subjects relating to Australian history, economics, geography, and so forth, the successful thesis being published under the auspices of the university. It is also noteworthy that the winners have in quite a large proportion of cases heer ladies. Among them is Miss .Mvra Millard, a M.A., of Sydney University and author of it “History of the White Australia Policy,” a monograph which gained her Hie distinction of being Harbison-Higinbothnm scholar for 1923 in the University of -Melbourne. Miss Mill ard lias examined an enormous mass of material bearing on the question, and has written a most extensive and closely documented account of the genesis of the concept, and tile manner of its realisation. In the outline the story is familiar to all Australians, but it may not he gene- ■ rally realised that although tho influx of Cldne.se to the gold diggings during the ’fifties of last century gave a great impulse to the 'White Australia movement, its origins are much earlier. When tho colony was established, tile proximity of the Bast, with its illimitable labour supply, was held to be a positive advantage. Sir Joseph Banks, indeed, mentions it as one of tile inducements for the formation of a settlement. But in the ’thirties, when the proposal to import- Indian outlies was first seriously considered, there was already feeling against it. Prominent men, such as Vi. C. Wentworth objected to Indian immigration lor reasons of racial purity. During the next decade a few Chinese, Indians and Pacific islanders were brought in under indenture, but the traffic was unorganised, and half-hearted, nor was the system approved hy the hulk of Australians. However, in the ’Fifties, when Chinese began to arrive in large numbers as free immigrants, public opinion was thoroughly aroused, and since then the advocates of the admission to Australia of coloured labour have fought a losing battle. With the embargo on the importation of Kanakas tor the Queensland sugar plantations the champions of a Min to Australia captured the last trench. Miss Willard examines the motives which led to the adoption of the doctrine, and discusses the reasons why it has .been misunderstood, and even, condemned in other countries. But perhaps the most valuable portion of her thesis is that in which she points out that tho policy has a two-fold aspect, a positive and a neg-n----ti\e. The assertion of the right to exclude the coloured races carries with it the obligation to people Australia with members of the white race. To that duty Australia, as yet, has not been sufficiently alive. “The History of a White Australia is so far mainly, if wot entirely, the history of a nega-

live policy. Australians are beginning to realise, as did Mr Doakin 20 years ago, that the restriction of non-Euro-pean immigration is only a part and 'a no means the most important part of Australia’s policy, hut the realisation n, slow. Though with only a few short Irn-aks there has for long, been a small stream of assisted immigration into Australia, the development of a White. Australia policy in its positive form, may be said to be a movement scarcely yet begun.”