The Nature of Australasia's accompanying table rives a bird's-eye view of the exports and imports of Australia and New and suggests how the people occupy themselves. The most iotable feature of the exports is the great preponderance of animal iroducts, especially wool, Wheat and flour also figure largely in Australia, but New Zealand turns more to dairy products as is natural in its relatively cool and fairly moist climate. Even in Australia, which is one of the world's famous mining regions, the total production of gold and of all other metals is only a fourth as valuable as the expotts of animal products, if we include manufactured as well as unmanu factured goods. Nevertheless, in the high value of its minerals Aus tralia, ranks with South Africa, Arizona, and other arid regions.
Another important feature of the Australasian table of exports i that it shows a higher stage of development than prevails in any par of Africa. Australia and New Zealand, to be sure, do not have qu1 so well rounded a list of exports as has French North Africa, but that probably in large part because of their newness. But the fact that t Australasian table contains many manufactured products indicates : healthy industrial development. Australasia has not yet reache( the stage where it imports large amounts of raw material and Carrie on complex manufacturing, hut it is actively engaged in the simpl industries which convert hides into leather; milk into butter, cheese and condensed milk; and fruits into jams. Such work is probably th forerunner of complex industries, for there is already a beginning alon this line. The Australasians have the capacity far such industries I and have abundant raw materials which they might well use instead shipping then? five or ten thousand miles and bringing them back • manufactured fDrm.
The list of Australasian imports is remarkable chiefly because of the large values. So long as a people devotes itself chiefly to primary production and to the simpler kinds of manufacturing, the chief imports are usually cloth and clothing; machinery and other iron and steel goods generally come next; while the others in the list follow in varying order. Only in tropical regions such as Queensland, where much of the
food of the inhabitants is imported, does the relative importance of the main articles greatly depart from the general rule.
The Problem of a White the greatest of all problems in Australia is the question of labor and immigration. Today the number of inhabitants of Australia who are not of the white race is negligible. There is a constant demand, however, for laborers who can stand the high temperature and humidity of the northern parts of the continent and the heat and aridity of the desert interior. The white Australians probably stand these conditions as well as the whites of any part of the world, for the Australian government pays great attention to the health of its subjects, and the deathrate is surprisingly low even in the north. Moreover, even the worst parts of Australia do not seem to be as unhealthful as many tropical regions such as central Africa and the Amazon basin. Nevertheless many of, the Australians themselves feel that a large part of the continent can never be a White man's country. The white man can probably live there and prosper so long as he does not attempt to work in the sun. But whether he can permanently live there generation after generation as a regular farmer or in other outdoor occupations is a question. Much of the wealth of Australia lies in the moist northern parts where sugar, tea, coffee, pineapples, oranges, bananas, and many other tropical products can be raised. To develop these northern regions requires labor; and the Australians are confronted by the question, How can that labor be procured? a. Most of the Australians insist that their continent remain white.
They do not want Chinese, or Hindus, or any other race from Asia or Africa. They are perhaps more intense in this feeling than the people of California and British Columbia. Yet they feel that they must have immigration and that something must be done to develop their vast areas of waste land. The only solution appears to lie in finding out just how tropical climates influence the white man and how the harmful influences may be overcome.