"THE BLACK POLICE."

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 92, 22 April 1891, Page 5

"THE BLACK POLICE."

By A. J. Vogan.

The first edition of an Australian story bearing the above title, and written by a well-known former resident in Auckland, has just arrived in New Zealand. The book is one of those works known as " novels with a purpose." In the course of his travels through the Australian wilds and bhose little-traversed districts known as the " back blocks," bhe aubhor was shocked by bhe atrocities perpetrated upon tho Australian blacks. The character of these outrages is sufficiently indicated by the following extract, which jjiv.es -the keynote to his purpose —> a laudable desire to perform on behalf of the Australian blacks bhe humane mission which was so eminently fulfilled by " Uncle's Tom's Cabin" in the case of the negro : — "'Communications that have lately reached us from the north show too clearly that our people have nob yet been educated to the recognition of the human rights of the original possessors of Australia. A correspondent forwards, descriptions of atrocities of alleged frequent occurrence in the northern districts, the bare recital of which is enough to make one's ears to tingle. Nor are we allowed the common consolation of ignorance or sontimentalism or exaggeration on the part of our informer. For our correspondent is a well-known pressman, who has done a bib of exploiting both in Australasia and New Guinea, who admits that he has himself shot natives who would otherwise havo shot him, and of whom we can readily believe that, as he says, he is "not particularly prejudiced in favour of the natives or very soft-hearted." He even tells us that ho is not himself a religious man, and yet declares that he would nob think the future commonly assigned to the wicked by religious people as boo condign a punishment for atrocities that have come within his knowledge. His indictmenb touches mainly tho districts lying between Cairns ;'and Georgetown, where, be says, blacks are being decimated, and by Government servants in the shape of black troopers and their masters, whose " dispersion " of the aboriginals in particular localities has simply come to mean their slaughter. He speaks of men being kept for bhe sole purpose of hunting and killing the aborigines ; he giveß instances of their camp* being surrounded, and men, women, and children massacred for killing cattle, when, through the white man's presenco, thoy could no longer find game ; and ho tells in detail one story of bho extermination of a camp simply because some blacks had been seen passing a mining station where nothing had been stolen for months. Roundly he charges the " grass dukes " and bheir subordinates with " murdering, abducting children for immoral purposes, and stockwhipping defenceless girls," and he condemns "each Government thab comes into power for winking at the slaughter of our black fellow-subjecta ot tbe Queen as an easy way of getting rid of the native question." The " Northora Miner " asserts that this picture is not overdrawn, and that the atrocities mentioned have even be«th exceeded. It refers to squatters branding blacks, keeping harems ot black gins, and finding their slaughtering record no bar to advancement to high office in the State. Tbe black trooper system is, in the view of this paper, legalised murder, which reckona the life of a bullock of more account than that of a score of black fellows. We do not vouch for the truth of these serious charges; but. if true, the horrible demoralisation of such a system on blacks and whites alike ib is difficult bo over-estimate; and cry exaggeration as we may, it is clear that enough remains to cull for the immediate and earnest attention of the Government. Sir Thomas Mcllwraith will earn the gratitude of the colony to all time if he will bub exert himself for bhe aborigines of Australia —whose country after all we have simply taken from them by force—as Sir Samuel Griffith exerted himself for the kanakas. Surely there is as much call for a Commission of Inquiry in the one case as in the other.'"

In his brief preface the author says :— " I have endeavoured to depict some of the obscurer portions of Australia's shadow side. The scene* and main incidents employed are chiefly the result of my personal observations and experiences: the remainder are from perfoctly reliable sources." Apart from its serious side, the story is an exceedingly interesting one. Its opening scene is laid in Auckland, where the hero.Claude Angland, first hears the intelligence of the death of his uncle, a noted Australian explorer, in North Queensland, from whom he receives a mysterious packet, containing a letter written in ink that is only made visible by the application of chemicals. Some difficulty is experienced in discovering the key, but when found it announces the discovery of a rich gold-bearing reef and urges Claude to search for it, guided by a black boy who had been for many years the faithful companion of the dead explorer. Claude at once enters upon the dangerous and almost hopeless quest, and in the course of his search has many thrilling adventures. The pictures of Australian life and scenery in a rising goldfield, upon out stations, and in the untrodden wilds, are admirably drawn, and the characters introduced interest the reader and excite strong feelings of sympathy or repulsion. One gets a better and altogether more humane ideaof the Australian black in this.book than; perhaps any other work on the subject published since Sir George Grey issued his narrative of Australian exploration fifty years ago. We have no doubt that tjhe work, which is published in strong boards at the low price of two shillings, will m.eet with a very large sale in this colony. Our London correspondent, writing in his literary notes remarks: Messrs HutQhinson have just published an attractively bound novel called " The Black Police," by Mr Arthur James Vogan, of Taurapga. The story opens in Queen-etreet, Auckland, which is picturesquely rather than realistically described. Mr Vogan enunciates strong views on tho subject of womankind in the capital of New South Wales. *' Sydney," says our author, " is a gigantic bait pond where the wealthy debauchee can luxuriously roll in sin and feed styarklike and unchecked upon the daughters of the colony."