ABORIGINES IN NORTH WEST

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 60, 4 December 1926, Page 21

ABORIGINES IN NORTH WEST

-Mr. M. P. Durack, a northern pastoralist, and formerly a West Australian member of Parliament, who returned from Kimberley recently, said that the problem of the aborigines was very serious, It had retarded the development of the north more than was generally realised, and it would not be solved for the next century or two. The security of the mountain fastnesses and the great abundance of native game and vegetable food, coupled with the fact that closer settlement would not occur for a long time, made the blacks a very difficult problem to deal with. Besides killing cattle, the blacks harried the animals and contributed to their wildness. He suggested that the aborigines should be segregated in reserves, from which white men should be excluded. Mr. Dtirack said that there was no question that cannibalism did exist. In the early days the aborigines operilv admitted the fact Cases generally occurred after tribal fights, and usually the victim was a well-nurtured young girl, Hunger was not the motive, the sacrifice, being a ceremonial practice. Mr. Durack said that lie could give the names of 29 men who had nut their deaths al the hands, of aborigines in the last Ifi or 17 years.