AUSTRALIAN BLACKS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 24, 29 January 1929, Page 19

AUSTRALIAN BLACKS

LACK OF CONTROL

FIRM TREATMENT ADVISED

(From "TIIO Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, ,10th January.

In the course o£ the inquiry by. the Federal Board into the shooting o£ a numhev of-blacks la?t year by a i^arty of police interesting evidence .is, being given, as to the treatment of,blacks generally, and the dangers of the methods' of some of the missionaries who have little knowledge of the psychology and habits of the natives have been emphasised. New Zealand is extremely fortunate in not having similar problems with its native race, and New Zealanders who are accustomed to dealing with the Maoris find it difficult to understand the aboriginal. Missionaries have been freely blamed for Bomo of the trouble that has occurred with aboriyinees from time to time, and the Eev. E. E. Kramer, a well-known missionary, of the•■• Aboriginal Friends Association, said in his evidence that there was justification for the allegations. Young missionaries, lie said, not understanding the aboriginal temperament, treated them as, ecxuals, and provoked trouble by allowing too much familiarity. Mr. Kramer read a letter addressed to a Government official in which he said that he was forced to the conclusion that the herding of blacks on mission reserves was wrong, and that making them work, on outback stations was prefoi-Qble. "Too many missionaries arid too few police" was the cause oi-flio blacks getting out of control, according tp Mr. Charles Maynard, a member of the Advisory Gouncil for Central Australia. Mr. Kramer said that lie did npt agree with the statements that the blacks were shockingly ill-treated. He said that on a recent trip he had found the station blacks, old people aiid children, badJy off for the food to which they were accustomed, though he found no actual starvation, as had been alleged by many people recently. Through the drought they missed the native fruit, rabbits and grabs and the rations handed out after killing were scarcer. In this respect the whites were suffering as severely as the blacks through the scarcity of cattle. He had difficulty with the blacks owing to a previous visit to them by two young missionaries. He gave as one explanation of the raids on stations the fact that station blacks had "gone bush," had acquired a taste tor sweets, tobacco, and station loods, could not resist the craving for them, and had returned to get those luxuries. Having no knowledge of what was sin, or no standard of ethics, they thought nothing of killing to gain their ooject. In that direction more control was needed. . .

Mr. Maynard, who for 25 years was a drover from the Koper River to Oodnadatta, m Central Australia, said that he had just returned from a tour ctf the ft i V , 4ustralia' and he fo«nd that the blacks had plenty of food and water, despite the fact that this was the driest y? aSi °n r l ecord- He thought that the cause r * + ? s, h°otine of the blacks was the tact that too many people had come into the .country who did not know how to treat the blacks. The aboriginal had to be treated firmly and made to work for his roY^ t 4 sso, c/ at,ion 7 ith tte missionaries lobbed the blacks of their natural skill inhunting game. It was idle to talk of blacks being short of water. They knew how to find it.. Given a quantity of food, the blacks ate enough to see them through the day.and gave the rest to-the dogs borne .remarkable evidence was given by Mr.-H.-M.'-Heinrich, acting superintendent r, f, Hermannsburg Mission Station, who told the board that Miss Annie Lock a missionary at To Tree Well, had said that she would bo quite willing to marry a black man. He disapproved of white women working among the blacks. The spectacle of a white woman moving about among nude blacks, he said, lowered her in their eyes and in their own-standards. The restriction of natives to certain waters and the prevention of thiiv huntmg on cattle runs was one reason for the natives' present hostile attitude •MisLTfif S + C°^ do incalculable harm, and benefit to the natives could only be attained by ong and sustained missionwork. Hermannsburg had been established for ten wars before one conversion had been gained Mission work frequently failed through being too religious. Bodily wel--4n Tj-j 6 be coinWned : with spiritual. d "? en l hould be compelled-& work, othenvise they 'would hang round stations and become arrogant. Only the Sl ',}\ c v? ry oId ' and the ™ry younc should be given food. He believed in legalised corporal punishment for blacks who misbehaved. He knew of no cases of starvation in Central Australia.