STATUS OF ABORIGINES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20870, 12 May 1931, Page 9

STATUS OF ABORIGINES.

OPINION OF ANTHROPOLOGIST GIRLS SAVED FROM HAREMS. SYDNEY. May 11. Dr. D. S. Davidson, an anthropologist, after 15 months of work among the Australian aborigines in the far north, on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania and the Social Research Council of New York, says the natives are much maligned. So far as intelligence is concerned, they have been described generally as being among the lowest in intellect of the races of the world, but nobody is able to prove such a description. They are a race peculiarly placed, and render recognised psychological standards useless for comparative purposes. Simultaneously with Dr. Davidson's observation comes a message from Darwin stating that native women are being sold at Bathurst Island for bags of flour and sugar, or knives and tomahawks. The purchasers, however, are Roman Catholic missionaries, whose object is to retrieve the girls from some of the chiefs, who have collected harems, in which are included young children. The priests are endeavouring to break down this custom, and find the chiefs ready to sell the children, who are glad to escape into the sanctuary of the mission, where they are taught useful household knowledge. When they are grown up they will bo given an opportunity to make a natural selection of husbands. The experiment has not yet lasted long enough to show how this phase is going to work out.