NATIVES WARNED OFF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 264, 7 November 1932, Page 8

NATIVES WARNED OFF.

GRANITES GOLDFIELD. ILL-TREATMENT ITT NORTH. CLERGYMAN'S ALLEGATIONS. (From Our-Own Correspondent.) • SYDNEY, October : 28, ; With half-a-dozen expeditions converging upon the Granites country, and with positive proof that large areas in "the dead heart ■of Australia" are auriferous, with gold at over £6 per ounce,, and the world hungering j and thirsting ior : a great influx of the" precious metal into the channels of trade, it is natural that a great deal of public attention ehould be concentrated, on the prospects of a revival of gold mining that may make a vast difference to the prospects of the Commonwealth. '

Meantime, an announcement has been issued by the newly-appointed mining warden for the Granites to the. effect that he proposes "to send the blacks' from the field, and to ask that the country within a radius of ten miles be declared a prohibited area for aboriginals." The nativee in these obscure and remote regions are dangerous when they are molested, and the experiences of, Lasseter and many other prospectors may seem to justify such a .policy.. But it ie well to remember that ■ all the most serious troubles with the aborigines in the past have originated through incursions into the land-that they regard as their own, andi especially into their hunting fields. Men like Gribble and Francis Birtles, who! have spent many years in close contact with the natives, have constantly emphasised this, and it ie to be hoped that this invasion of the wilds of Central Australia will not' cause the sort of "trouble - with the, blacks" which is so painfully .familiar to all students of Australian history.

the Rev. W. Morley told his audience 1 that "aboriginal''labour in-the northern a part of Australia 'is practically elaver.v, I and the condition, of : 70*000 (natives * ■ pitiful." According to' this- ■ the northern part of the continen Station owners; go out armed to.'couw ■ labour for their stations, having receivM | a license from a police protector. W} I the ■ worst feature of the situation u y the; treatment, of the nativewj* | "Ninety-five per cent of the nuinw ■ among the Australian native ««# ; eays Mr. Morley, "are caused over aau" ■ women," and. the'blacks fiercely reeem || their ill treatment by the whites.

"No Justice For Natives." '.' | .' Mr. Morley told the conference;'*'! I is no justice for the Australian nati". | we often hear of murders of white*». § blacks, but we very seldom hear of w | murder of blacks by whites." i^ 8 | matter of historical fact "th^re >, J ' | never been a white man convipted a the murder of blacks since 1838." § if we-regaxd some of these statement i as exaggerated there is certainly eDOtg ■ truth in them, to arouse a strong P* I demand for more adequate protecti ■ for the' rights of the aborigines, and" | justify very grave anxiety about» | effects of this new contact between t« I natives and the whites who .* re , 11 lowing nhe.lure of gold" into the W» I of Australia. .

" Practically Slavery."

Quite apart from this, there is only too much ground for criticising and condemning the treatment of the natives by the whites in the- remoter northern districts. Speaking recently at the con-ference-of .4he"- Congregational - Churches,