Australian Letter “Fair And Decent Deal” For Aborigines

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29278, 9 August 1960, Page 18

Australian Letter “Fair And Decent Deal” For Aborigines

[Bv N.Z.P.A. Australian Spacial Correspondent] SYDNEY. Australia’s aborigines—in some parts of the country an almost forgotten race—were honoured recently through the medium of National Aborigines’ Day.

They were eulogised in speeches by Parliamentarians, prominent men and educated members of their own race. It was a day on which the white population was reminded of its responsibilities to them, where native welfare, assimilation and such matters are concerned.

Victoria’s acting Chief Secretary (Mr L. H. Thompson) in a special message to mark the day, said: “It is important to realise that persons of aboriginal descent, in Victoria, do not present a racial problem. Rather, they present a challenging problem and it is the responsibility of everyone to face up to this question.” He said he believed observance of the day would contribute towards a better understanding of the whole question of aboriginal welfare. There had been a great growth of public awareness about aborigines and their welfare in the past few. years. Mr Thompson said the purpose Of National Aborigines’ Day was to arouse interest in, and sympathy for, aborigines. It also was intended to indicate what the various Australian Governments, Christian missions and voluntary organisations were doing for them. RACIAL PROBLEM

In New South Wales, the Chief Secretary (Mr G. Kelly) said every person in the community had to do his utmost to combat the racial problem, when he addressed a lunch-time city rally. He pledged that the State Government would do everything possible to see that the aborigines in New South Wales—about 13,000 —got a “fair and decent deal.”

At the same ceremony, Pastor F. Roberts, himself an aborigine, said that racialism was brutal and should never become implanted in the Australian way of life or thought. “Australians and New Zealanders are two peoples who possess the spiritual and moral

qualities to bring about assimilation,” he said. “We do not want to see assimilation just as a policy, but as a fact. All of us want to see in our lifetime the elimination of racial torment and racial bigotry. ‘‘We would like to see the eradication of racialism, which is felt in many parts Of the world today.” SATISFACTORY LEVEL An American negro professor, now visiting Australia, said in Sydney that the racial problems of American whites and negroes would reach a satisfactory level within a generation. He is Professor J. H. Franklin, aged 45, of Brooklyn College, New York, who is giving a series of lectures to Australian universities on negroes and racial problems. • * • “Little Kit," a pet pony, 23 years old and 12 hands high, probably is the only horse in Sydney able to graze on a block of land it can call its own. The land, 27 J perches in area, and situated in Roseville,. a residential North Shore suburb, recently was bought specially for “Little Kit” by her spinster owner. Miss Muriel Barnes. , Miss Barnes invested her life savings of £3650 in the land, because “Little Kit” was actually bom on the block in 1937. “Little Kit” is a wonderful pony and I’ve had her since she was a baby,” Miss Barnes said this week. “She’s been on this land all her life and it wouldn’t be right to take her away. HUNDREDS OF FRIZES “The land will not be built on while she is alive. It will not be used for anything, but a home for the horse I love so much, and who has won hundreds of prizes as a pony, hack and a stud mare. “Most of the champion riders I know have ridden her at some time or other." Miss Barnes, who lives only a short distance away, bought “Little Kit’s” £3650 "home” at an auction by the New South Wales Housing Commission. It was one of 34 blocks sold for a total of £149,155. « * •

Contraband goods worth many thousands of pounds are known to litter the bed of Sydney harbour, and in dredging operations valu-

able articles frequently are recovered. New round-the-clock swoops by Customs officers have had known smugglers on their toes in recent months.

The smugglers think nothing of dumping in the harbour a portion or all of their ill-gotten gains, if they become faced with official detection.

NARCOTICS AND JEWELLERY Among goods which have been tossed into the harbour by smugglers, from time to time, to avoid detection, are transistor radios, narcotics, cameras, jewellery, and watches.

Customs officers said last week that improved detection methods being used against smugglers were causing increased dumping. In spite of this vigilance, the officers say there has been an increase in smuggling from the Far East, mainly in transistor radio* and narcotics, which are not easy to detect because they can be brought ashore in such small packages. ♦ * *

The wheel of fortune has turned the right way for a Sydney taxi owner-driver, Mr Colin Smith, aged 29, a bachelor. Recently, he won his second £6OOO first prize in the New South Wales lottery, to bring his lottery winnings to £16,250 in two years.

His run of luck began in 1958 when he shared with his sister £BOOO in an inter-state consultation. Then followed a £6OOO first prize in the New South Wales lottery last year, £250 two months later, and now his second £6OOO. Appropriately, he called his winning ticket, “Easy To Win.” • ♦ •

Cattle rustlers are operating in Brisbane (Queensland) within only 12 miles of the General Post Office. In the last few months there have been several thefts of house cows which, police think, are being slaughtered in remote areas and sold as meat.

The thieves’ technique has been to pinpoint the grazing cows in daylight and return at night to load the beasts into trucks, into which they art quickly driven to distant areas. • « •

Super-sensitive listening equipment is now being used by Sydney pest exterminators to find the destructive European house borer. Quarantine officials consider the borer a greater threat to the Australian softwood industry than white ants. According to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the. pest entered Queensland in 1952 in imported pre-cut houses, many of which, in that State, have been damaged extensively by the borer.