ABORIGINES PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19625, 2 May 1927, Page 7

ABORIGINES PROBLEM.

QUESTION IN AUSTRALIA. PROPOSED STATE RESERVES., [from our own correspondent.^] 'SYDNEY, April 21. ( Following upon the welter of evidence concorning"We-'tr'eatm6ni ( of "blacks in north-west of Australia, given before:(he Royal Commission that is -inquiring into the matter, comes .the ,testimony of a .champion of ths natives. ! He is' s, Dr. • Arthur Adams. Resident Magistrate- at, Wyndhain. ■ He says : "In no part bf thfe world has the native population been more' evilly treated than in Australia, i speak', f especially of. West Australia, and from 2?; years! experience. The majority of he rightful owners of the soilare , vagrants on the face of the earth, and in the saihestates as they were 140 years ago, with the exception that they now exufc ui. vastly diminished numbers. "I calculate that in the. north, during the past 5Q years, about 10,000' natives haye. disappeared by devious means,, not necessarily old age. Their natural game have beeu either exterminated' or frightened away, and tha place of native game taken by flocks and nerds of their white oppressors. If the natives, in desperation, to satisfy their hunger, kill cattlfi, do not forget that the native has his idea of sport like the white man. "All the severity of the feudal law b inflicted on the blacks. For this there is only one remedy. That is, to make the whole native question a Federal matter, with the provision t'hat each State provides a permanent reserve, in which all natives of the State concerned wonld be drafted, in short, absolute segregation "From the reserve, natives should l.e allowed to pass out only after having qualified in a sixth standard education! test, and they should then receive their freedom and" franchise, and take their places as the equals of the whites."