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INTRODUCTION
Mr. Macintyre is to be commended on
calling attention to the need for populating our Northern areas. The empty
North menaces Australia. Its continued existence as a nation depends oil
first line of defence being manned. It is not our back door we are leaving
unguarded. It is not our back yard that is empty. The historical
processes, the evolution of Internationalism, has made Northern Australia
our front garden. That we have allowed it to be neglected, that we have
built behind a wilderness, and then slothfully neglected to improve and
beautify and protect the area from which our well-being may be assaulted,
our independence be threatened, is unthinkably stupid—and criminal. If
Australia is to be held—it will be held in the North. If Australia is to
be free from the aggression of marauders, it will only be because we have
taken time by the forelock, and made it impregnable. It can only be made
impregnable by settling the empty, inviting, healthy—but now
neglected—North, with men who will make it their homeland, their holy of
holios, their own. Empty North Australia menaces all Australia. The
problem is Australia's. The menace must be removed by Australian action.
Whatever differences, mental or moral, may exist in the minds of man, the
truth of the old adage remains unfractured, "God helps those who help
themselves." To-day Australia can help herself effectively. If she
continues in the "to-morrow" habit, a not distant "to-morrow" may dawn
with an alien flag afloat over Northern Australia, and then the only
continent, with "one people, one flag, one destiny," will have become a
land of warring interests, a land of clashing strife, a land on which
thesun of peace has set, a land facing the blood- real dawning of discord,
schism and dissension. Mr. Maclntyre preaches a sane doctrine of
Australianism for Australians. He shows where we have failed to make
Australianism efficient. I-Ic points out our duty, not as the man of
letters in polished periods, but as the man of action, the man who has
lived in the empty North and has seen all that its "vacuity" portends, who
has read the portents and speaks as an Australian from the depths of his
first-hand knowledge, the man who knows that until we set out to do our
duty to Australia by making Australia safe for Australians, by utilising
to their uttermost our Australian assets and potentialities, by making
full use of our glorious heritage, the motto upon our coat of arms is a
braggart's boast, or worse still, a weakling's aspiration. In his own way,
the author has shown how to make good, the words that inspired the
earliest Australians—Advance Australia.
JOHN H. C. SI4EEMAN,
Clivederi 'Mansions, Gregory Terrace, Brisbane, 31st
Jan., 1920.
DEDICATION
In dedicating this book to their Excellencies, I am
actuated by three distinct motives.
Firstly—It was on the occasion of the reception at
Burketovn of their Excellencies that I first had the pleasure of helping
to entertain a Representative of His Majesty, the King and of making my
first speech in public.
Secondly---Lady Goold Adams was the first wife of a
Governor to pay Burketown a visit for many, many years; and on being
presented with a separate address by the good ladies of 13urketovn, we
were pleased to learn that it was the first separate address she had
received from the ladies of Queensland.
Thirdly—His Excellency was so interested and impressed
with what he saw and learnt on his visit through the country. that I feel
sure we can thank him for the interest that has since been taken by the
Government in our District, which at last looks as if the claims of the
Gulf for prosperity will get a chance of proper recognition.
PREFACE
In June, 1917, there came to little, forgotten,
decaying, ill-used, un- known Burketown, an outpost of the Empire in the
Gulf of North Queens- land, known as the town of goats, claypans, and
glass bottles, their most Honourable Excellencies, Sir Hamilton John Goold
Adams and Lady Goold Adams, determined to do his duty honourably and nobly
to the glorious Empire that placed under his jurisdiction the State of
Queensland. The Governor left no place unvisited that his valuable time
permitted him to visit, and see for himself and to bring into closer
contact even these despised outposts of the Empire, the courtesy and
spirit of affection and nobleness that is the birthright of most of the
nobility of John Bull, and which his determined, (logged, democratic, and
peace-loving rulers have the tact of choosing out of his millions to act
as envoys for this purpose of Empire- building.
We can all from our infancy look back with affection,
reverence, and honour to our first knowledge of our State Governors. Mine
dates from that glorious old gentleman, Sir Henry Wylie Norman, and with a
particular reference to Lord Chelmsford, who also visited Burketown, the
list is complete up to his present Excellency.
New South Wales can also echo, I feel sure, the same
sentiment, and also the other States.
In referring to his Excellency Sir Walter Davidson,
also, I can only quote from the press of the day. Great as this admiration
is for our State Governors, there are those who exclaim that our
Commonwealth Peer, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, is the "daddy" of the lot,
and no one who feels and sees the sentiment towards his Excellency but can
concur with those people (even although they have never come in contact
with or set eyes on him).
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