A DYING RACE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19971, 4 July 1930, Page 22

A DYING RACE.

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS. PROBLEM OF THE FUTURE. (UOK 00* OWS CORBESPOHDSST.) . SYDNEY, Juno 26. The treatment of Australian aboriginals &M bees in marked contrast with the treatment of the Maoris by New Zealand. Full-blooded aboriginals are dying out, and their place is being taken by a race of half-castes which ia earning an' unenviable reputation. The treatment of tho Australian Native could not be better exemplified than in the case of "King" Walter, the 38-year-old chief of the oneo powerful Murrumbidgee tribe in New South Wales. He presented a pitiable figure the other day when ho appeared before the Parramatta District Coroner when an enquiry was held into the death o£i hit - brother, George Anderson, the former "Icing" of the tribe. He was unshaven, and without socks. George Anderson was found dead, and the doctor said that he died of heart failure accentuated by heavy drinking. •Sing Walter said he had travelled iiil miles to bo present at the enquiry. To obtain the money for his fare he had been compelled to make and sell two boomerangs. The-Coroner: Don't you get anything from the Government? The King: Not a penny or a blanket. The Coroner: Well, that -seems a *Jiame. King Walter said that his brother had been a heavy, drinker of methylated spirits, wine, and whisky. He had-been a clever tracker and an expert at making boomerangs. Following close upon this case came the remarks of the Kev. M. Boxall, who, while addressing a conference of clergy at Perth, said that Australia would soon have to face the problem of dealing with half-castes who were increasing under sordid conditions outback. They knew little of the comforts of civilisation. The native mi* mias had'been replaced by primitive, dirty huts. A vast majority of the halfcMftes had no religion whatever, and Ihere had. been a general breakdown of morality.