FREE COMMUNITY

Hokitika Guardian, 13 June 1936, Page 6

FREE COMMUNITY

BLACKS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. ) ; June. 7. It is doubtful whether the 10,000 aborigines living in New South Wales . would welcome the suggestion of a self-governing aboriginal state. With practically all the privileges, and.legal, rights of citizenship, . the aborigine is not troubled by rent collectors , doctors’ bills, or even the cost of clothing. ' in New South Wales he is entitled to ' vote at a State election, although he has no vote at a Federal election, except in the very rare instance where he was a registered voter before Federation.

i The .aborigine is ,not compelled to remain on a reservation, although under the Aborigines’ Protection Act lie can be ’ compelled to allow his children to remain at a reservation school. This is to prevent the parents from taking the children on the track with them, thereby neglecting their education. . .

He drink —legally. i The Aborigines’ Protection Act gives : a. board certain powers, the most important of which is the prohibition of the sale of liquor to aborigines. There is a penalty not exceeding £2O for con- ( travention of this rule. The board also has power to indenture a boy to an employer, and receive the wages earned. These waiges are banked for the boy and interest allowed. He may apply for the money when he can show that he needs it—generally when his indentures are finished, ana he wishes to marry. Although there is no record in this State of aborigines taking proceedings in the higher courts of law, apart from divorce, there would be nothing, to prevent any one of them, from entering upori, for instance, , an' action for libel.

The educated aborigine is quite con- ’ scious of his legal rights, as evidenced .by the large number of summons cases which are heard each year between aborigines in the country police courts. These include assault cases arising out* of backyard squabbles. The majority of aborigines remain on the reservations and work for the nearby stations for award wages, which they retain themselves.

Legally, they cannot own anything while living on these reservations, but in practice they are , encouraged to look upon their cottages a.nd stock as their own, and improve them. Housing, schools, medical attention,, and. clothing are provided on the reservations. ' School-teachers’ salaries total £BOOO a year, while the Government allocates an . average of £40,000 a year for generalymaintehance.

But if the aborigine this somewhat Utopian niodei ol'‘existence and wrestle with income tax and the other financial worries t,o which the white citizen is heir, there is nothing to stop him. There is on record, a case of one native who, when he died, left an state of five cottages and £2OOO.