To those who earnestly believe that a country exercises dominance over
its inhabitants, mental as well as physical, the present state of North
Queensland offers interesting problems. Save for a fast-disappearing
remnant, gone are the original occupiers of the land. The most listless,
the least thrifty of the old peoples, have given place to representatives
of the most adventurous, the most successful--men and women of British
blood, of progressive ideas, vaunting and independent spirit, but with
slight respect for the traditions of their race. Apt to regard their own
land as all-sufficient, to resent the incoming of strangers (especially
those of dark complexion), determined to exclude coloured labour from
tropical fields, while demanding higher and yet higher recompense for
work which in other equatorial regions is deemed to be servile, on what
grounds do they base the hope of adapting themselves to their
environment, of becoming children of the soil?

The genius of the race forbids degeneracy. Marked and sudden improvement
may be expected if examples drawn from the lower animals and certain
plants are applicable. Huxley laid it down that "the animals and plants
of the Northern Hemisphere are not only as well adapted to live in the
Southern Hemisphere as its own autochones, but are in many cases
absolutely better adapted, and so overrun and extirpate the aborigines.
Clearly, therefore, the species which naturally inhabits a country is not
necessarily the best adapted to its climate and other conditions."
Australian aboriginals having given way before a race better fitted to
flourish, what will the future of the new race be? What ideal is at
present pursued?

To one who firmly upholds the theory of the evolution of Australian
types, and who thinks he perceives convincing evidence in support of his
belief, it seems likely that on the tropical coast, where the influence