Taylor proclaimed his views with dogmatic assurance, consequently he became a controversial figure and on some subjects he drew heated criticism.

Early in his meteorological career he published a text book 'The Geography of Australia'. It was banned in the schools of Western Australia because the author had described most of the interior of that State as desert.

Again he was subject to criticism when he described the Northern Territory as a gigantic 'white elephant', while before a railway commission he strongly advocated that a railway to the Northern Territory be built from Carnavon to Daly Waters, rather than north from Oodnadatta. He could see no future giving economic significance to the Territory. One newspaper published this as 'Professor Taylor epitomises life in the Territory as Living Hell'.

Taylor's objective was to prevent the spending of huge amounts of money on what he saw as worthless objectives. There were other subjects too in which he was severely criticised by the press: one was his advocacy of inter-marriage (with reservation) between Australians and Asian races.

In 1927 Taylor joined the Chicago University and remained until 1936 when he moved to the Toronto University. In both Universities he continued to work tirelessly, with sessions of travel for his many geological expeditions.

Bureau of Meteorology