AUSTRALIA'S FAR NORTH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1706, 22 December 1919, Page 11

AUSTRALIA'S FAR NORTH.

A LAND-FOR HALF-CASTES. MISSIONER'S VIEWS. Twenty-eight years ago Mr Nicholas Hey took cluu-go of the Prcsbytcnan Mission at Mupoon on the Gulf of Carpentaria Recently Mr Hey arrived in Sydney with Mrs Hey,' having relinquished his post to a successor. „ „ „ "Looking back on it all now wo can sny that our years away in the north wero fully occupied and wo think usefully. It has been well worth while. The mission was estblished by the Presbyterian Church of Australia at the request of John Douglas, then president at Thursday Island, to serve the needs of the aboriginal population in what was then a terra incognita. The Queensland Government reserved a block of eouutiv hiivinjr an area of 3800 square miles, extending from the Batavia to the Archer rivers. Within that area our work'has gone on. When I went in there twenty-eight years ago to open the mission there was nothing but bush and wandering natives. Eventually we established headquarters at Mapoon. Tim •primary' object of the mission of course.' to convert tho tribes to Christianity, buc tho mission was.not confined to thaf ob. iect From tho" beginning tho mission laboured to establish industry—to induce tho natives to concentrate on work of vafious kiods--to teach them habits of order-and thrift. Our efforts mot with the minding of success and want of success common to such undertakings, but progress was, on tho whole steady. The homestead principle has been followed throughout, and in time men uere induced to settle, upon individual blocks of their own, carrying on minor industries to provide for sustenance and homo consumption, and taking P«t >'\ tll( \ ,a , rgor activities. Development has latterly been very satisfactory. Apart from individual homestead work the principal industries are cattle raising, copra making, and boclie de mer catching. Last yoar the income- from these sources was £2IOO. Tho outlay m. connection therewith being £I4OO, tho natives thus had a credit of £7OO fromoutside trading." About tho future of the Gulf Country Mr Hoy has formed very definite views. "Tho deterrent from white settlement to any extent thereabouts," ho says, "is of tho most powerful kind. You cannot build up a, perninnent population anywhere if the cliniato imposes upon parents the necessity of separation from their offspring, and it is as certain as anything can be that residence along ■ rhfi Gulf'is impossible for white children, 'fhe futuro must bo in tho hands of a pooplo acclimatised from birth, arid for that reason our obligation to tho half-castes is overwhelming. The full-blooded natives have no futuro except extinction. They are dvinir out. Tho hall-castes, on .the other hand oro a virile people and are increasing. Mapoon ha* been made a reformatory station —that is to say, a place whence neglected children may bo sent from contiguous dountrv Many 'half-castes comn to us this way. That they are highly intelligent and tractable is open to no doubt whatever, -lhq voungor the mission gets them the bettor naturally, since it is important they should £to school and be, from the earliest years accustomed to order and self discipline. I 5 hopeful that before ong a complete measure of segregation will bo provided for So Gulf mission so a« to keep these backtard' people entirely within the area ret aparf for thorn. If this is done and Insisted upon for two or three generations then the arts and crafts of civilisation may bo learned S3 confict with tho outer world be per. St tod. The important thing is to give the peonle already there a chance of develop. S-of workingoutthdr own sa vationnstead of leaving them to perish or to Lava nothing but demoralisation before Mr' Hey mentioned that there are about 10C0 people on tho reserve. The school at Mapoon is attended by 77 children.. There are also outstations. missions at Woipa and Aurukun, and another mission at Mormngton Island. During the whole of Mi\ and Mrs Hoy's residence at Mapoon they wero tho only whites there.