Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT : 1873 - 1927), Friday 30 November 1906, page 2


TROPICAL AUSTRALIA.

> ABRIDGED FROM PAPER.

By J. S. C. ELKINGTON, M.D., D.P.H. CHIEF Health Officer Tasmania formerly

of the Imperial Plains Research Laboratory Bombay.

[Printed by order of the Common-

weal t II Senate.]

McWHAE is Tropical Australia % No question of labour economics can be here dealt with. I hold no brief for

any particular political view or theory, and desire merely to reasonably discuss the physical possibility of a considerable white population working and thriving in Tropic in Australia under an enlightened and progressive Administration, as well as to indicate certain difficulties which appear to lie in the way of successful colonisation, and the manner in which they may be met. Before doing so it may he advisable to briefly consider certain facts, and a very few figures, bearing upon the country

under consideration.

Tropical Australia, comprises rather

more than one-third of the entire Commonwealth territory.- One-half of Queensland, 523,620 square miles or the Northern Territory, and the north-western divisions of Western Australia, are included, totalling in all some 1,145,000 square miles. Much of it yet remains to be opened up, but enough is known to justify bright anticipations of its commercial future. The mines of Chillagoe and Charters Towers testify to the existence of mineral wealth in the East, and the mineral deposits which are known to exist in the Northern Territory and the King

berley district have not yet been fairly investigated. Sufficient reliable physical cartography has been carried out in Northern Australia to effectively dispose of the old idea that the Northern Territory is purely a vast mangrove flat,

and the remainder an arid waste of sand

ator near sea-level Elevation materially modified climate, and the breezy table-lands of eastern North Queensland at least afford for many months of the year as " bracing' an atmosphere as can be found anywhere in the world.

Drought is a rare phenomenon in the monsoonal area, and the great northern rivers testify to the abundance and regularity of the annual re-

verification from this cause. These also afford waterways for considerable distances into the interior, and drain extensive areas- of good pastoral country. The Victoria River, for instance, is stated to be navigable for ships of any size for over 50 miles, and the Roper for some 90 miles. The Gilbert, Flinders, McArthur, Daly, and Fitzroy, are amongst other large stream?, whose basins are stated to contain extensive areas of good pastoral land. Very large cattle runs have been taken up, and in the first six months of 1904 some £500,000 worth of cattle were exported from the Northern Territory alone. Where good pastoral land is plentiful in a wellwatered country, it may be reasonably concluded that good agricultural land

is not absent.

It is already known that the finest quality of cotton can be produced in parts of Tropical Australia, and although cotton is now held to be a peasant crop, the problem of a mechanical picker may not always remain unsolved- The cultivation of tobacco, maize, dates, quinine, spices, opium, and other profitable vegetable products appears to require only the necessary population; The extension of pastoral and farming pursuits, as, for instance,

in the direction of breeding goats for his ea and mohair, the raising of poultry and eggs, and dairying for export, would seem to be capable of extensive and profitable developments. The breeding of Indian remounts of a kind particularly fitted for the Indian climate does not appear to have been attempted on a large scale.

These brief indications cover but a

few of the possibilities now hidden in an undeveloped country. It is by no means an earthly paradise, but neither is it a fever-smitten jungle, as some would have us believe. It already supports. in parts a fairly considerable white population, who do not appear to be degenerating, despite the recklessness and ignorance so often displayed in relation to personal health and habits. Although the numbers are too small, and the age and sex distribution too uneven to permit any solid

conclusion to be drawn from the statistical

records of the Northern Territory, or North-West Australia, those of the more evenly settled districts of tropical Queensland conipaVe- excellently well with tion tropical places.

H. WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIONS

RAISED TO ITS OCCUPATION BY A

WORKING WhiTE RACE?

Granting, then, that over a third of Australia is situated within the tropics, that the territory so included presents a great variety of local conditions, and appears to be capable of supporting a

number of varied and lucrative industries,

it is worth while considering in some detail the objections which may be raised to its occupation by a working white population. The magic word "climate'' at once leaps to the lips of the lay controversialist, and but too often obscures the judgment of the

medical observer. Around this word h has been woven a tissue of incorrect to

inferences, of superstitions, and of pre- n j uri ices. or

Modern army experience shows that pi

with the formulation and observation of

of sanitary laws, and the adoption of a se more reasonable manner of living, the in sickness and mortality of European air soldiers has steadily decreased, until in tr, some of the very stations which in for- tr mer years were most dreaded (eg, of Trinidad and Barbadoes), they are st actually less than on home service in he years in which there is no yellow fever. is Cinco these observations were made, At the

Americans have taught 'us - that yellow fever is a preventible accident, even more manageable than malaria.

The effect of tropical diseases upon European children will be later considered. Personal experience - and observation alike go to show, however, that the whole question of healthy European life in low latitudes hinges principally upon domestic and personal environment and habits, and that

climate pure and simple may be largely J ' discounted.

' Tropical diseases are closely associated

with climate in the popular mind as mysterious horrors always ready to pounce upon the unwary in-truder between Latitudes 23 degrees 28 minutes N. and S,

But Malaria ranges from the subArctic zone to the equator, and is but recently extinct in the British Isles. In parts of Italy it is still a scourge, but, generally speaking, agriculture is the relentless enemy of malaria.

On the other hand, certain notable diseases of Europeans in temperate climates are almost or wholly absent from the tropics. Diphtheria and scarlet fever are amongst these. .- With rational domestic environment, the ravages of tuberculosis, greatest of all disease scourges amongst civilized races, may be reduced, or even abolished, in tropical latitudes, owing to the increased

amount of fresh air and sun-

light, and the lessened exposure to house dust. Typhoid fever, however, becomes accentuated in tropical localities, once introduced, and in European troops in India forms "the most prolific source of sickness and death." ,

Tropical conditions may, and will,

accentuate and increase the results of

errors or offences against hygienic laws,

but no burden of imminent or unavoidable

disease is laid of necessity upon the white resident of the-tropics.

Impure water; improper food, and general neglect of the rules of health will produce much the same ultimate effect, whether the victim resides in Melbourne or Palmerston. The measures which we now know how to direct against transmissible disease, whether for its prevention or its limita-tion and extinction, can be, and habitually are employed with the same certainty and directness in tropical climates as in temperate ones. The

degeneration of the progeny of white races in the tropics has been frequently discussed. Three principal arguments have been advanced in its favour, iiDmely, climate, disease, and

mixture and association with coloured races. It has been sometimes stated

by extremists that children begotten and born of European parents in a tropical climate tend to be deficient in mental or physical strain from their birth. The long roll of famous Englishmen from Thackeray onward, born in India, should go far to disprove any such assertion, and the strong hereditary tendencies shown in the Indian Army and the Medical and Civil Services should clinch the question were serious proof needed. Even the short history of tropical Queensland can contribute its little quota of instances against the doctrine.

To sum up, the principal difficulties to be met in establishing a permanent white population in tropical Australia will have to be created by the people themselves. Climate forms, by itself, but an exploded argument; specific disease s can be effectively dealt with by a properly skilled sanitary organiza-tion, and the absence of a numerous or settled coloured population is calculated to greatly simplify the whole problem. The development of the national common, sense will no doubt take time and in the event of any deliberate attempt at tropical coloniza-tion, the hygienic education- of newcomers, and particularly of their womenkind will require to be carefully and resolutely undertaken.

III. PROBLEMS TO BE FACED.

Any scheme for the colonization of the tropics will require to take into

account the fact that infectious diseased

form but a part of the responsibility, and that every reasonable attempt must be resolutely made from the commencement to exclude, check, and suppress all forms of preventible

disease."

The exclusion of disease does not, however, complete the undertaking.

The construction of houses and buildings

must be carried out in a manner befitting local conditions, and not on the lines obtaining in cold or temperate latitudes. Dwelling-houses should, for instance, be carried on supports well off the ground, and a total disregard paid to "draughts" in the construction of the rooms. The walls should stop short 6 inches or so below the roof

level, only the requisite props being carried through this spice, save in the coolest localities. Roofs should be of thatch or porous time, if obtainable. Iron roofs should be done away with as far as possible, but if they must be used, should be made double, with a space of at least 18 inches between, open to the air on each side. Verandahs are indispensable for shading the walls, and should be never less than 8 feet wide. Trees and dense shrubs should be cleared away from the house. A free air supply, with protection from the sun and ground air, are the principal objects to be aimed at, and by the issue of simple lithographed type-plans containing practical hints on

construction and on the utilization of local material, useful assistance could be afforded to newcomers.

The elementary principles of tropical hygiene, including such matters as the methods of self-protection against malaria, the danger of impure water, of excessive use of alcohol, and of improper diet, the care of children, and other questions of domestic and personal hygiene, will need to be clearly indicated in simple, practical language, and reiterated as occasion or opportunity arises. The sanitation of centres of population, whether temporary or permanent, will necessitate very strict regulation and supervision. The hours of work should not be those of

temperate climates, and in tropical Australia, as in tropical countries else

where, must be adapted to suit the meteorological conditions. There is, however, no reason to believe that an adequate working day will become im-possible-it is me» ely a re-arrange-ment of hours. For the children the. ordinary school hours and school terms of temperate climates must go by the board, together with the usual haphazard style of school buildings. Elementary hygiene and tropical domestic,

sanitation, including dietary, should form a salient feature in the school curriculum, both for their immediate and future effects. The preservation and care of health is already accepted as an all-important question in modern education, and under the conditions! now dealt with its importance becomes overwhelming.

Special diseases will need to be fore-seen. With the opening up of much of the new country malaria may be confidently expected to become a somewhat serious factor, to disappear later as pastoral and agricultural operations, become widely extended. The experience of the Malay Free States, of WestAfrica, and elsewhere, shows that malaria is, under ordinary conditions an eminently manageable disease. The absence of a large native population will greatly simplify the question, and it must be borne in mind that' infected maniacs is as essential to its. spread as the Anopheles mosquito.

It may, perchance, appear to a lay-man that in the consideration of the difficulties to be faced, too great consideration has been given to health and sanitation. He may rest assured, however, that no element of professional,, prejudice, or medical faddists, enters, into the matter. The most prominent arguments advanced against the colonization of tropical Australia by a whiterace have been those of probable ill

health and racial deterioration. The

fetish of " climate" has already been dealt with. Lest it be concluded that too much confidence is placed in the resources of modern tropical sanita-tion, I may be excused for briefly quoting a recent experience in theMalay Free States.

Port Swettenham and Kiang were

founded about 1900 as comment craft

centres, in notoriously malarial localities. ~ Port Swettenham, indeed, was situated on a mangrove swamp, and

both localities served as centres for the

spread of malaria to adjoining pi ices. In 1900, 474 deaths occurred from " fever" and " other diseases," and in 1901, 1,026 days of sick leave- weregranted to Government officers on account of malaria alone. Vigorous anti-malarial measures were undertaken,

chiefly in the form of permanent drainage and reclamation works and the destruction of mosquito breed-ing-places. The deaths from fever fell!

steadily-in an increasing and largely native population, be it rememberedfrom 259 in 1900 to 48 in 1904 ; figurefrom " other diseases" also falling from 215 to 74- Elsewhere in the district, where anti-malarial operations had not. been undertaken, they increased. in 1903. the malaria leave was 73 days in 1904, 71 days, 40 days of which

were to two officers who had con-, tracted the disease in an outside district.

Excepting tl»ësW~t^vl)7Tfiî""ïTîïiT

resident in either King or Port Swettenham suffered from malaria be

tween 12th July and 31st December 1904.

W CONCLUSION.

The future of tropical Australia, appears to be in the common sense of the people, and of their representatives in the Legislature. In its present

condition it must continue to. form a monument to the lack of enterprise

displayed by Australians, and a perpetual temptation to other racesand peoples more appreciative of its varied endowments, and gifted with greater resolution and insight than weappear at present to possess.

In this age of land-hunger Australia cannot continue to act as the dog in the manger. Given sufficient industrial attraction, population will soon beforthcoming, and there appears to be no good reason why that population, should not be a white one. Should the

initial difficulties appear too great, the-' alternative of a coloured population is always feasible; but I, for one, would regret to think that the national pluck, and enterprise upon which we Australians are rather apt to pride ourselves

is insufficient to enable difficulties to be faced which have been met and overcome elsewhere under less favorable conditions.