Economic and financial section > Problem of nutrition

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of the diamond diggings, where want is extreme. In some fishing
villages, too, especially where much salt fish is consumed, the percentage
is higher than it should be, and in most areas where the ground is poor
in quality and the people live on restricted and monotonous diet largely
carbohydrate in character.
There had been considerable improvement in some areas, where a
better and more generous diet has been introduced into indigent
boarding-houses. The chief needs are more milk and dairy products
generally, especially in the areas where calcium and phosphorus are
deficient. In these areas, too, the eating of tinned fish, bones and all,
is to be encouraged because of the calcium phosphate in these bones.
The Cape Province is supposed to be an agricultural country, but there
is insufficient consumption of dairy products in far too many homes.
This is due to economic reasons, and is aggravated by the high price
of dairy products generally.
Australia.
Territory of Papua.
General Survey.
In the Territory of Papua, a dependency of Australia, there is a native
population of about 300,000 natives and about 1,000 Europeans inhabiting
some 92,000 square miles of territory. The territory in great part consists
of hills and swamps. The mountains rise to heights over 13,000 feet.
For the most part, the native population still lives in villages and
subsists mainly on the produce of their gardens. Apart from the work
they do on the roads and as carriers for the Government, their life on
the whole is very much what it must have been before the advent of
Europeans. However, some pay tax varying from 105. to ^1 per year
and have to contend at times with the introduction of influenza and the
consequent respiratory infections which everywhere seem to follow it.
In most areas, the population is undoubtedly increasing, but, in some
few, the population appears to be stationary or even diminishing. From
the European point of view, all the rural villages must be suffering from
a deficiency of protein. From time to time, they may get kangaroo
meat or an occasional pig, either wild or tame, but the amount cannot
be very great. Nevertheless, for the most part, the rural natives, even
if at times under weight, do not appear to be in bad physical condition.
The native food comprises sago, sweet-potatoes, taro, bananas, and
various roots described as yams or taitu. The coastal people are better
off in view of their ability to get fish, crabs and shell-fish in varying
amounts.
In the western part of the territory, much sago is eaten. Cases of
beriberi occur and the occurrence of infantile beriberi is suspected.