HALF-CASTE PROBLEM

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 February 1939, Page 12

HALF-CASTE PROBLEM

NATIVES IN NORTH AUSTRALIA I CANBERRA, Jan. 17. ! “The only anthropological problem in North Australia, is the half-caste ! problem,” said Mr. C. T. Maddigan, ■ Lecturer in Geology at the Adelaide | University. when addressing the Science Congress to-day on “Adminis- ’ trative Problems of the Australian DeJ pendencies and Territories.” 1 “Make North Australia Jit for white! women to live in and the problem will' be solved,” he said. “Nothing can save the full blood aborigine. Even the kindest administration in the world J cannot save him.” i

Mr. Maddigan said that there was no hope for agriculture in North Australia. There were 20(1,000 acres of peanut plantations, and they had been established only after years of arduous effort. Even mining was very disappointing.

The only economic, possibility rested with cattle and sheep grazing, he said. The immediate need was a policy which would assist graziers to find and use more water. It. cost. £2OO to sink a well, and that was an insuperable obstacle to most of the settlers. One good well was worth £lOO,OOO.

Dr. H. lan Hogbin, of the Depart- j ment of Anthropology in the Univer-i sity of Sydney, discussing the labour i problem in New Guinea, said that, the I resources of New Guinea were scarce- I ly being tapped. The village culture: of the natives was being destroyed I by the young men who returned from i working on European plantations and | mines with swelled-hcaded and bump- j tuous ideas. Eorinerly the old men ' of the tribes were able to discipline! them, but now that the young men returned to the villages with European money, the old mon found themselves ! dependent upon the goodwill of the! juniors. |

Dr. llogbin said that Australia ! might well look to Tanganyika as a I model in administrating New Guinea.! The Tanganyika Administration hail ; encouraged native cultivation, and had , refused to increase the head tax in dis- I tricts where the natives could not augment their earnings by working for themselves. The Minister for the Interior, Mr. McEwen, who presided over the meeting. said that it was intended to ap-j point anthropologists to posts in the | Mandated Territories and North Aus-1 Iralia. The discussion he had heard -■■■.••■•3.l be ci’ cilae in moulding future administrative policy.