WHITE AUSTRALIA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4592, 30 July 1923, Page 1

WHITE AUSTRALIA.

THE HALF-CASTE PROBLEM. Addressing members of the Sydney Millions Club, Professor Griffith Taylor (of the Sydney University) said there were three European races, which he defined as the Alpine (or Mongolian), intermediate, and Mediterranean groups. The presentday nationalties of Europe were composed almost in every case of mixtures of two, or sometimes all three, of these fundamental races. It showed that fundamentally different races could produce satisfactory and progressive nations. The Alpine group was closely allied to the Northern Chinese. Colour was not the index of race origin for ethnologists, but the relation of the width of the skull to the length. Generally the lower the type of people the longer was the skull. The Mediterranean group was the most primitive, went on the lecturer, anl was allied to the primitive people of Africa and Australia. The “Bushman ” tribe in Central Africa was akin to the extinct Tas&anian race, and the Zulus to the Australian aboriginals. The most, primitive people living to-day were in the heart of the Congo jungle. He emphasised the point that a half-caste Maori,. Red Indian, or Chinese, was far superior ethnologically to a half-caste negro. In Australia, said the Professor, the moot primitive race was in Tasmania, and careful investigation had shown that the aboriginals in the nortn were superior to those in the south. “ Everyone should learn more about the . Australian aboriginal.’,’ he added. “In about 30 years the last of pur full-bloods will vanish, unless some great change takes place. We must study them before they all go, unless we want to be ashamed, as a civilised community., that our dedescendants will say that we had a chance to study them for 30 years, and yet did nothing. There are a lot of aboriginal carvings of which we should take every care. Tn the heart of the Malay Peninsula, the Professor continued, were people very closely related to the lost Tasmanian tribe, while alongside them were close relatives of the Australian aboriginals. Melanesia, from an ethnological, viewpoint, was a most fascinating region, as distinct types of Europe were found in these islands. From the customs of these people we could learn of the primitive habits and customs of our ancestors of 3000 or 4000 years ago. He showed a photograph of Robert Louis Stevenson and his faithful cook, and described the latter ethnologically as a more intellectual type than the author—" a remark,’’ added the lecturer, “ which always causes amusement.” Professor Griffith Taylor said that the great human migrations toolr place on account of climatic changes. The chief climatic change had taken place in the north of Europe and the neighbouring north of Asia. His theory was that peoples were pushed down into southern regions, butinanv retreated to their original regions when the ice went back, and possible developed a somewhat higher race of people, while those people who remained in the warmer regions lived the slothful life of the tropics and remained undeveloped. “The tropics do not, make for the development of whites or- blacks,” remarked the lecturer, “ but only for stagnation. Do not place settlers in the tropics or in arffi regions, but develop the temperate regions.” In conclusion, Professor Griffith Taylor said that we need not be distressed about the marriage of whites and Mongolians, who were a branch of the Alpine group. The result of such mixture in the past has been a strong, virile race in no wise inferior to the two peoples concerned. The White Australia policy was a very sound policy during the early stage of - a young Commonwealth. “ But I do not think,” he added, “ that it will be a good policy'for pur grandchildren to make bitter enemies of these yellow people. “There are plenty of ways of guarding the future without having teaming hordes of Mongols, and I ask you to realise that it might not be a calamity.