AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STOCKMEN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14060, 15 May 1906, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STOCKMEN.

(By “ F.R.j” in London “ Field.”) Although the Australian aborigines are “a dying race,” they are still to be found in fair numbers in every State of the Commonwealth, save Tasmania and Victoria. In Tasmania they are quite extinct, while in Victoria a small and pathetic remnant is ending its days in a couple of Government reserves. But in New South Wales. Queensland, the northern territory of South Australia, and the northern half of West Australia they are still quite numerous. In the north-west of Queensland, and in the Northern Territory, indeed, there are large tribes quite unaffected by the white man, and likely to continue so for some time. Professor Spencer and Mr Gillen, in their famous trans-con-tiuontal trip a few years ago, came across several tribes which up to then had not seen a white man. Wherever the white settler has made his way, however, one of his first proceedings has been to fulfil the old prophecy concerning the sons of Ham, and to make the black man his servant. This was the case in Victoria in the early days, and it is the case still in the other States. In the Northern Territory' and on the big sheep and cattle • stations in the north of West Australia, it is the rare exception to find a run without one or more “ black boys ”■ being utilised in various ways. Until very recently there was a most UNDESIRABLE SYSTEM OF “ INDENTURING ” THE BLACKS to the station owners in force in West Australia, the evils of which were exposed by Dr Roth in a scathing report which went the rounds of both the colonial and the British Press. The real source of the trouble was the fact that the district alluded to was so far away, right beyond the outskirts of civilisation, that very little of what/was happening cams to.the ears oi the authorities. In the Eastern States, however, the aborigines have had, on the whole), at any rate in recent years, lair treatment. In Western New South Wales and Western Queensland, black stockmen ■ have always been, and still are, very : common. "Many of the squatters have : interested themselves in the training 1 of the young aborigines, teaching many of them to read and write, and bringing them up side by side with the white station children. The result, on the whole, has not been very encouraging. The Australian aborigine has the classic distinction of being one of the ■ lowest and most degraded specimens of the genus homo, and it must be admitted that the distinction is deserved. The hush phrase, “ Once a black fellow, always a black fellow,” sums him up perfectly. I have known several instances where aboriginal babies, of both sexes, were taken completely away from their ' people and brought up in a white family. They wore taught various accomplishments, and spoke English just as -well as the white youngsters. But invariably, on the first opportunity, they RELAPSED PROMPTLY INTO BARBARISM, ■ and soon the only trace of their upbringing that remained to them was their faultless English. One black girl that I knew was kept in a refined white home until she was eighteen; then, getting word of a blacks’ camp a few miles away, she stole off to it, and when found she was sitting in a mia-mia, with her clothes all discarded and a possum rug wrapped round her. The best black stockman that I ever krew fell away in the same fashion. He had been brought up from a baby in a white family, and was noted for his scrupulous cleanliness and quite a dandyish care for his clothes. He was trained as a stockman, and on horseoauk ho could hold his own easily .with the best men on the station, which on this particular station meant a great deal He was dressed, from his widebrimmed, soft-felt hat to his long riding boots and spurs, exactly like ’ he other stockmen. Ha spoke perfect English, took part in the various sports, and, in fact, differed from the white stockmen apparently in one respect only, the colour of his skin. He was at 'this time about twenty-two years old. I left the station just then, and, returning three years later, I pulled up at an old mia-nna to question the occupants about the route. Beginning in the usual pigeon English. I was amazed at the half-naked, dirty and unkempt nigger, who was in (..ho ashes, replying in first-class English. As his voice seemed familiar 1 looked at him more closely, and exclaimed, “Why, surely you’re not Harry from Yaloo?” “ The same man, boss,” he coolly replied. “Scon after yon left I married a girl of my own colour and took to tho old life. And hi kept to it. . , . But, in spite of this fact, a lot or useful work is got out of the black stockmen. They are passionately fond of horses, and seem to be naturally good riders as a rule. They have an easy, graceful seat, and, as they are usually light weights, they make excellent stockmen. It is practically always necessary, however, to have a. white man or two with them. Even if given the most minute directions, they will contrive to make a muddle of any work they are sent to perform alone. They are almost always lazy, and, once out of sight of their boss, they will take things extremely easy. Responsibility is a word tlicv simply do not understand in the slightest; Starting out with these principles in mind, the station owner manages to get a lot of useful work out of them. They are hardy, and used, of course, to tho bush, and their MARVELLOUS TRACKIN'/! ROWERS are often very useful. It is one of tho bush sights to follow a black stockman tracking a missing horse. At an easy canter he will pick out the tracks, even when they cross or arc intermingled with others, all the while commenting on the behaviour of tho horse he is following. He will mention whether he has been feeding, walking, trotting, and so on, though often to tho inexperienced eye there is no sign of a track on the hard surface at all. Their eyesight, too, is usually very keen, so that when out mustering they arc usually the first to see -the horses, or cattle, or sheep that are wanted. ■ Almost always tho squatter treats them well. They receive often tho same food at the same table as the white man. Often they prefer to get their rations in tho raw, and cook for themselves at their own camp. When they arc fed with the white men they usually receive good wages, some of them getting as much as the white stockmen. In all cases they are allowed something, if it is only tobacco and clothes. They are very poor hands at figures; in fact, the anthropologists say that in their wild state they cannot count above five tho fingers of one hand. So tnat many droll bush yarns are told of tho manner in, which this deficiency is used against them. One station book-keeper “is said to have paid his black boys in this fashion: “Well, Snowy, here’s one. pound, and the pound, I didn’t gib it you makeni two pound ; then four pound baccy you gst make it ’nother pound, and four 1

pound baccy you didn’t get make it all five pound. I give it you pair pants, two shirts, and stick tobacco now. and we all square, eh?” And the completely bewildered black boy, saying “ Right, boss,” TROTS OFF QUITE CONTENTED. Shearing-time is when the black boy is in chief demand. There is then usually a shortage of labour for the press of work, and the black boy is engaged to helpa muster the sheep, work about the wool-shed, and pick up the wool; also in a number of cases ho blossoms into a full-blown shearer. I have, in fact, seen a shed almost wholly manned with black shearers. They soon become pretty expert with the shears, and, if carefully watched, do good work. Their natural laziness, however, often spoils them. It is a curious fact, too, that they cannot or will not stand the heat ae well as the white man- No doubt it is terrifically hot sometimes in the sheds of Western New South Wales and Queensland. The thermometer climbs remorselessly up to 115 deg and llSdeg in the shade; there is not a breath of ■air; the iron roof of the shed crackles under the scorching, sun. , On. top of this, the shearer bends over a hot, smelly sheep. It is no wonder, then, that man after man, the black fellows first, throw down their shears and crawl under the shade of the nearest shrub. In former years the black women used to be called on at shearingtime. Their work was usually pickingup the fleeces and carrying them to the wool tables, and they are said to have been very quick and expert at the work. But tho woolshed knows them no more now, except, perhaps, in the very backblocks. On the whole, the employment of the aborigines on, the stations is of advantage both to fi.he whites and the blacks. It gives tho latter something to occupy their time with, which would otherwise be loafed away around bush shanties. Unfortunately, the bulk of money they earn goes in this direction. Like all other aborigines, the Australian loves the fire-water, cannot control bis use of it, and will do anything—even give away his wife—to get it. The rum bottle is, on the whole, the greatest factor in his steady descent towards extinction; and one of the chief efforts of the various Governments and their native-protection officials is directed towards keeping it away from theyi. In most States it is an offence to give an aborigine intoxicating liquor.