AUSTRALIAN VISIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 106, 31 October 1936, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN VISIT

A CANADIAN RECORD

BLACKS AND JOURNALISTS

"Protector of the Aboriginals" was a sign on a Government building which caught my eye in Brisbane as I returned from my investigation of Saturday shopping and registered a mental note as something to be investigated, writes E. Cora Hind from Australia to the "Winnipeg Free Press." Sunday moi-ning the Sunday edition of the "Courier-Mail" contained an entire page, well illustrated, showing forth the virtues of the aboriginals and stating that the aboriginal people in Queensland had amassed a bank balance of more than £250,000; that their position is a monument to the white man's efforts on their behalf, and to the blacks for the way in which they have fallen into line with the programme mapped out for their transformation from the nomadic savage to the civilised citizen; that the Queensland aboriginal is an asset and not a liability; that the aboriginal population is 75 to 80 per cent, self-sustaining, which was more than could be boasted of the white population at the moment.

The earnings of the . Queensland aboriginals are £220,000, the cost" of Government administration £46,000. Further the article stated that "contrary to all preconceived ideas, the aboriginals have proved that- with sympathetic treatment and a genuine desire to understand their point of view and their difficulties of adapting themselves from what was practically the Stone Age to a strange civilisation, they have in them the material which, if properly moulded, is the making of a self-respecting citizenship. They can learn almost any accomplishment the white man can teach them, even to mechanics and architecture, and the black man is as intelligent in his own environment as the white is in his." POPULATION FIGURES. This was all so interesting that I called at the 'office of the "Protector of the Aboriginals" to find if it was all true, and I was assured that it was and that considerably more might have been said in their favour. ■ I asked if they were increasing or decreasing and was told that, while in past years the decimation had been very great the number of full-bloods having dropped from 50,000 to 12,000 in fifty years, this was now arrested and there was no danger of them dying out for the next 100 years at least. The present birth-rate of the full-bloods is exceeding, year by year, the death-rate. The crime record is very low; in fact amazingly low. Of the 17,000 fullbloods and half-castes resident in Queensland, only an average of 50 in the past three years had been charged in a police court. The full-bloods number 12,306. Of these; 6997 are males and 5309 females. Of the total, 12,306, there are 3239 children. A VISITING AUTHOR? The Australian National Travel Association, rather an up-and-coming organisation, had a brainwave recently and invited the famous H. V. Morton to come "in search of Australia." Letters of protest to the Press immediately appeared. The secretary of "Australian Writers Fellowship" asked: "Why import writers from abroad when the Australian product is quite satisfactory?" The "Sydney Morning Herald," in a lengthy editorial, rather deprecates this attitude, though it agrees that, unless the visitor be a "genius of the descriptive order of D. H. Lawrence" there is not much to be gained by inviting strangers. . However, the "Herald" writer thinks that Australia has probably profited by a visit from Zane Grey, who came on a similar invitation and has,' as all invited guests are expected to do, announced that Australia "is the greatest country I have ever visited." As it is larger than the United States, it is just possible that geographically that may be correct. I have not heard of Mr. Grey being in. Russia, though he may have been. Australians, however, did not take his statement as referring to the physical size of the country. The editorial concludes: "A writer who comes out at special invitation and under responsible auspices will be given the right opportunities to observe the beauties of our country and the attractions we can offer the tourist from abroad. We hope that Mr. Morton will honour us with a visit and we can promise him a warm welcome when he arrives 'in search of Australia.1 Apparently Mr. Morton unexpected to feel flattered at being asked to become a tourist advance agent for Australia." _____