British race that it adapts itself with equal success to the long, dark,
cold winter of Canada and the perpetual summer of North Queensland. Who
is to say that the Canadian in his thick woollens and furs is a healthier
subject, a worthier type, than the North Queenslander, stripped to the
waist in the full blaze of the sun, glorying in his own vigour, proud of
his magnificent heritage, and scornful of the opinions of those who have
never experienced that supreme zest of life unpurchasable outside the
tropic zone?

With intent to picturesquely demonstrate that soil will tell, some are
ready to assert that we owe Christianity to the horizontal limestone
formation of Palestine. Accepting the theory with whole-hearted
enthusiasm, and admitting that North Queensland comprehends tracts of
country not dissimilar from the Holy Land, mark what the future may have
in store for the race. Do you want old age?--Methuselah, Noah, Isaac.
Strong men?--Gosselin, Samson, Saul. Beautiful women?--Ruth, Rebecca,
Esther. Does not David, the man after God's own heart, appeal? Was not
Solomon, the wise, the glorious, the prolific, a superior type? And,
with all reverence be it said, was not the Founder of the Christian
religion a solar product?

Hotter lands beyond the bounds of Palestine gave to the world men and
women whose deeds and influence still astound and stimulate millions of
mankind--the Queen of Sheba, Cleopatra, Pharaoh the Great, Moses the
leader, whom the Lord knew face to face, Joseph the organiser, Mahomet,
the benign Buddha, and all the sages, the poets, the historians, the
architects of the gorgeous East. May not those who elect to live in lands
of high temperature and who are strong in their faith cite apt and
illustrious precedents, and make bold to say that none has exercised more
influence on the minds and destinies of mankind than those born in the