WHITE MAN'S LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 7 (Supplement)

WHITE MAN'S LAW.

/"AND THE ABORIGINE. TRIAL IN DARWIN. HUMOUR AND PATHOS. In the following article a correspondent of the Melbourne "Herald," who has seen many aborigines on trial in the Far North, brings out the humour and pathos of a typical scene which- shows the difficulty of applying the white man's laws to a primitive race which knows only its own ancient laws. To one accustomed to the ponderous majesty of legal procedure in Australia's southern capitals, the first impression of an aboriginal trial at Darwin Supreme Court is one of amazing incongruity. In the dock, handcuffed to a ""white warder, is "Alligator," an aborigine, with a shock of tousled hair, puzzling over his first pair of pants and shirt, and fingering them wonderingly. 4. month previously he was a myall. One day, wandering naked, and "spear in hand, with his tribe, through their hunting grounds, lie met a half-mythical creature—a white man—and speared him m settlement of liberties the white man had taken with the tribe's gins. Opposite, arrayed against him in the space of the crude GOft by 30ft courthouse, are all the forces of white man's law. '.

Two Northern Territory Mounties— splendid specimens, In freshly ironed white uniforms, with shining silver buttons—guard the door's. On long wooden forms sit the jury panel, each with a white coat for the occasion. Bewi<r<r e d and gowned, the Crown Prosecutor °and a barrister briefed for the defence by the Chief Protector of Aborigines, rustle their papers. At the back of the court sits a motley collection of all races, in stages of dress and undress, from barefooted beachcombers in shorts and singlets, to "silvertail termers" in spotless tropical whites, waiting curiously for their first thrill of a murder trial. Ranged along the front seat are the Crown's aboriginal witnesses. The men are in khaki trousers and shirts, and the lubras in hideous striped calico dresses, cut very much on the lines of a chaff bag, with holes at the top for head and arms, and fitting where they touch. J The jury respond with sour faces when, their names are drawn.

Jury Mostly Prejudiced. Prisoner's counsel can hope for little sympathy from the panel. It is a 100 to 1 let that 10 of the 12 jurors share the practically universal prejudice against aborigines in the north. A and B, for instance, are prospectors, and never know when their time will come to stop a spear. X remembers it is only 18 months since his ■ houseboy in Darwin st'abbed another aborigine to death outside his back door.

The jury and prisoner are charged, •witnesses ordered out of Court and the struggle begins. An interpreter — some adventurous tribesman who has worked in Darwin, and picked up perhaps 150 words of pidgin English, is advanced by the Crown Prosecutor, a,id it is the turn of the judge's associate (Mr. J. W. Nichols). The bulkiest man in the north, Avith a genial smilo and a long experience of pidgin, Mr. Nichols quickly, gains the confidence of the interpreter, who, like all aborigines, admires bulk beyond any other manly virtue. He prepares to swear the interpreter. "You Christian boy?" he asks. The interpreter looks blank. "You belonga mission ?" —another "blank stare.

"All rig Tit. You savvy big feller boss here?" pointing to Judge Wells. "Two feller boss here" (counsel), "talk talk longa you. You talk longa witness; talk what witness eay. Supposem you gammon, heap big trouble come up."

Mary, the Witness. Mary, the first witness, speaks pidgin. Mr. Nichols' task is easy. "What name you?" he aeks. The witness, a young lubra, overawed by her vision of Apollo, hides her head in her arm and coyly drags her big prehensile toe across tha floor of the witness box. Mr. Nichols pats her hand reassuringly. "No more be fright. All about been good feller bose." She looks up with a ehy smile. "Come on, Mary, what your blackfeller name?" She whispers something inaudible. "Nar-Noo, your Honor," Mr. Nichols repeats; then, to the ■ witness, "You savvy that boy over there?" She nods. "One time big trouble come up. You tellem big feller boss all about it. Tellem what you been see alonga your eye, no more what you been hear longa ear, no more what other boy talk you. i Tellem true feller, no more gammon, no more lie, no more humbug. Talk out loud feller. All about big boss want hearem you. No more be fright." That completed tho administration of the "oath." Now comee the Crown Prosecutor's turn. Faced with a witness who cannot count beyond two days, has no idea of time or what is required of her, he

jumps straight to the point with two el's three leading questions that in any other Court would evoke howls of indignant protest from counsel for the defence.

• "White Man Fall Down." "You been longa Fitzmaurice that time White feller been speared?" he asks. To lead her to that point any other way would take hours, and exhaust everyone concerned. She nods. "All right, where sun eit down that time?" She points to the ceiling. "About ll a.m.," comments Judge

Welle. "What happen behind?" (after that), the Crown Prosecutor asks.

Then Mary, an excellent witness, continues: "Before plenty day big mob blackffillow been camp longa river. Me been there, alligator been there, Marpo been there, old man Chunwarra been there. Binieby white man come up. Humbug longa lubra belonga old man. Old man talk tobacco. White man point waddy old man. Big noise jump out, old man catchem sore longa leg. All about bhiekfellow been fright. Sun go clown, old man talk more better we killem white man. Piccaninny daylight come nj). Alligator catchem ahovel epear, Look epear, bottle epear, catchem woomera. Creep all same snake longa white man camp. Hookem up hook spear, chuckem longa white man. Hookem white man longa arm.. White man call out. Alligator chuckem shovel spear, catchem white man longa bingi. White man fall down. Alligator cuttem neck belonga white man longa bottle spear." "Bimeby him dead finish. Bejamm (husband) belonga me talk more better -we chuckem white man longa' river. Policeman no more findem." From that bare, vague outline of the prim tragedy, the Crown Prosecutor proceeds to%uild up the detail* by patient

questioning. He seeks to find just howmuch of the tragedy she actually saw, so that her evidence may be admissable. He must sort out the hearsay, and facts she learned }n subsequent tribal corroborees of the killing, from firsthand knowledge of the affair. Her softly gutteral pidgin is indistinct and hard to understand. Sometimes the prosecutor places one interpretation on a reply. Counsel for the defence thinks she said something else: Judge Wells differs from both—and Mr. Nichols' version would give a meaning totally different from all others. The Defence. Counsel for the defence, fresh from J a southern practice, rises to cross- | examine. I "You certain Alligator throw spear?" I he asks. Xar Xoo looks bewildered, and Mr. [Nicholls comes to the rescue. "You been see Alligator chuckem spear longa your eye?"—"Yowie, him been chuckem 1" she nods vigorously. And so it drags on—a heartbreaking struggle to piece together an accurate story of the facts, through the medium of a ridiculously inadequate jargon, in which it is impossible to convey to the witness or receive in reply those all important and exact shades of meaning that a criminal trial demands.

Curled up on the floor, the interpreter is fast asleep and snoring loudly whpn the next witness is called. More likely than not the witness, too, is sleeping soundly outside on the concrete tank stand. Fortified by a final drink of water from an empty jam tin, he enters the court, and is led by the hand to the witness box.

A myall, and overcome by stage fright, it takes ten minutes of patient coaxing by Mr. Nichols before he tells his name. It is another fifteen minutes before ho understands that he is required to tell about the killing.

The Crown Prosecutor walks round and pats him on the arm, and Judge Wells leans over the bench with a reassuring smilei Still distrustful, the witness winds his arm round the interpreter's shoulder, and whispers his evidence.

His testimony is only 200 words in length, but it takes an hour and a half to extract it. Towards the end he tires and squats on the floor.

The Agreeable Witness. The next witness is a " civilised" aboriginal, who has worked as a stock boy. He knows it is good policy to please the big bosses, so he does his best. To every question from the Crown Prosecutor he answers "Yes." He has the same reply to every query by counsel for the defence.

A typical passage: Behind sun go down you camp etone ridges ? —Yes. Next day sun go down you camp longa Daly River?—Yns. Then, with sarcasm that falls flat, "And might be next day you camp longa Darwin?" (1000 miles distant). The witness (blandly) : Yes. Meanwhile, the breathless whirl of Alligator's motor ride to court from gaol soon wears off, his brain tires of trying to fathom the mysteries of buttons and button holes; he cannot evolve any reason in the monotonous unceasing gibberish talked by the "two old men old women flourbag longa head" and the rigmarole of the Court he knows nothing about. The puzzled look in his eye is replaced by one of stolid unthinkingness.

The story of his tribesmen for the prosecution does not interest him. He knows they are only repeating the truth. He is not called upon to give evidence in defence. His counsel well knows he would only repeat word for word the damning story told for the Crown. He realises the impossibility of organising an expedition to hostile country to seek the erring tribe, and evidence to bolster up the story for the defence that Alligator killed the white man at the tribal king's command.

Sentenced to Death. Soon Alligator, overcome by monotony and , heat, falls asleep. He slumbers peacefully until the warder jogs him in the ribs and lifts him to his feet. Everyone stands during the pronouncement of the death sentence by the "big feller boss." Not until that is over v does Alligator's face light up again—at the prospect of another breath-taking ride to Fanny Bay, and the tremendous plate of beef, potatoes, bread, jam and tea. that wait him there. Probably Alligator will never realise lie was sentenced to die. Knowing a reprieve will follow as a matter of course, gaol officials will spare his feelings and not enlighten him. -Those who have sat through many criminal trials like Alligator's cannot escape the conclusion that the aborigine is a hopeless misfit in such a setting. At the most, the only service the Court renders him is impartially to weigh the facts —as far as they can be ascertained. Judge Wells, scrupulously fair and considerate, and a zealous guardian of their rights, is by far their most valuable friend.

The greatest weakness in the trial of aborigines is the absence of some authority who can, through study of tribal customs and the Mackfellow's primitive mind,- place the aborigines' viewpoint clearly before the Court. To remedy this grave defect, the Government has taken a wise step in the appointment of Dr. Donald Thomson as patrol officer in the North.