THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10579, 7 October 1910, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINALS.

" .my OH., in 'the Sydney Morning Herald.) * "A dying yace! Let '.em dieJ-'.. This m effect is the ]? reseut-day attitude of Australia and Australians towards tlie aborigines. Since the dajs of the "nigger-drives lin Tasmania, since the time ot the black police m Queensland, since first we foundth?it the native black could not withstan.d the immigrant white, our general _attir 1 tude lias been one of .absolute inuifi ference. "Let 'em die out] . - I • What in brief is the position I native races of Australia, to-dfty. How manv are there left in the Commonwealth? How do tliey live? What, is being done for tliemP Have they any value industrially ? Is., the aboriginal When it is realised how few Sydncysiders can give even an approximately correct answer to those questions, it will be admitted that the: first disadvantage j under which the aboriginal labors is the general ignorance concerning him.. Hi the more populous cen4ffes.he has ceased to exist. On the outposts of our land he is regarded as something between a harmless nuisance and a pest. . Firstly, there ' are ! approximately SO.OOO aboriGinals in Australia. Admitteclly this" is only an approximation. Official figures a year ago gave the total as 74,030. Church authorities from their missionary sources give the figures as 85,000. Kimberley cattlemen having in mind the depredations of the savages, reckon that there are 80,000 from the Gulf country to Roebuck Bay. On this armv of dispossessed. Austrabans the State" Governments,' by way of compensation. or perhaps as a- salve to . conscience, spend annually about £40,0U0. New South-Wales, with less than vOOJ aboriginals, spends: the largest amount, viz., £14,000. Western Australia, spends about ~ the same sum on .her 30,000 blacks. The Northern Territory, with about-20,000, spends £1200: while tlie same Government in South Australia lays out £4OOO. on : less than 4000. What an anomaly! A guinea a head on the Oodnadatta nigger, and a shilling a head on the Queensland s 20,000 aborigines cost: tlie State about half a sovereign each.; Victoria's remnant of 250 average £l2 " a piece per annum. Yet, in spite; of the fact that £45,000 is devoted annually to the aborigines, they are in many parts of the continent- —particularly in the north r—in a deplorable condition. Lateiy there lias Deen an awakened interest in the aboriginal. This may or may not have been due to the quickeii- ■ ing of missionary activities , amongst the I natives, for the Church, like the State, . has hitherto fallen: short of. its respon- . sibility. ■ Perhaps it. is due to . the strictly utilitarian spirit of the plantei, the pearler, .the, grazier, the miner, or tlie housewife. Al- any. rate lew will deny that the spending of a few. thousand ponds aiid- the .establishing ot a few isolated missions do not meet the needs of tho situation. What are the 80,000 natives in Australia doing?' -Well, a>few thousands of them are cane-cutting, or working on farms; or timber-getting, or droving, ; or : boundary riding, or fishing, or engaged on the beche-de-mer and -pearling luggers, or cutting sandalwood, or mining. A few thousand lubr.-is are engaged as -domestic servants. The vast majority, liowevcr, are wild, or lnnf round townships and camps. In the Kimberley district-th&y are mostly cattle spearers, and in every gaol on- the Western Australian coast .1 have,'i seen, them ancar- " cerated:; :So the>. black as present is hardly a commercial proposition. : . The question :arisesj. Is tho black an • -asset ? v : Can t.lje bp brought ; to assist in the development of tropical Australia? AVith rather a dubious past..(record:.to prove the contrary, tho optimist is still inclined to answer in the affirmative. But, : unfortunately, i there are racial ■ characteristics that preclude the aboriginal making an outstanding .success; of an j' job." For instance, it is not at all v, unusual for - the- nigg<3rs ronothe rbeclie- ! de-mer boats, and earning from. 10s to -20s a month, to obejj some, unaccountable .impulse, desert the ship, swim 1 ashore, -and ; disappear into .thev.bush. Again the native has no "sense of,-tlie ' value of time and. money..... On_ being paid ;off he . squanders his hard-earned cash, in gaudy silk handkerchiefs, lollies, cigarettes, cheap jewellery, and rides on merry-go-roujids. Then, nn the- Torres ' Straits- 'native "companies'' .have 'run pearling luggers, but when the purchase money for- the boat has ;been paid off, the predominating characteristic- of the black asserts'itself. * Thelugger is put of debt; therefore the 'incentive to work is gone The catch decreases, and the ■ business is neglected. The -servant problem crops up here'also. Many a pioneer grazier's wifelhas. been thankful r 'for' the help":of the iblack v gins on the <station; but always jrthefe comes : the - time, when the Jubra - to. "go bush," and may remain away for weeks. It is simply obeying the call 'of 4he wild. Other prolific causes!-of unsatisfactory : service are- liquor and!,opium." AlUthese constitute a pre tty.fair; indictment of . the aboriginal as a laborer. But he is not hopeless. I On the other side of, the shield we find that many .of the best. drovers ' and stockmen in Northern-Queensland and Western' Australia ai]e blacks and halfcastes.: • Along ; the jicoast of Queens- ■ land natives are employed at canecutting, and earn from. 10s to 20s a : .week. They are good workers, and the planters are glad to have them. On the becherde-mer boats are a good number of-blacks—splendid swimmers—and ■they are mostly contented and happy. ~ Round about the mines of the Northern - Territory and Queensland the blacks are employed as hewers of wood-and drawers of water. The lijbras, though having a tendency to extravagance, are very satisfactory domestics. Their wages range from Is 3d per week and their keep to 15s. The mail's wages go from 10s to 80s a month. The employers enter into an agreement to pay the wages into the bank, care of the protector of the ahoriginals, and this is a very necessary provision for- the good of tho black. If the blacks have shortcomings, so

liavo the whites. There is a genera tendency to take the law irrto their owi hands. Once ill the north-west : stockman admitted to me th&t he hac "shot 'em down like dingoes." An other (this was in the Timor Sea in i terrific storm, and the boat looked likt turning turtle, so he told me Ins sins hold me that he had been on staion. in the Kimberky country, anc leveral times the stockmen came across i number of bullocks speared, and then ;ons:iies and kidneys cut out. I hen .liev followed up the niggers, shot as nanv as they could, and burned the iodies. But the Chinese are the cruelest enemies of the poor blacks. they mpplv them with opium and rum, and nake" a practice of buying the young 11 bras, whoso condition ftom Cossack, n tbe north-west, to Bundaberg, 111 the lorth-cast, is pitiiul in the extreme. Ml the missions ill the world could not indo the harm wrought by .the.Chinese n Northern Australia. Round all the Chinese--camps are founcl thin, emaciat;d, opium-smoking aboriginals and hall•aste blacks with pigtails. Official reports show that-\opium-smoking. _ancl irnnkenness- amongst the blacks-at lnglam, Clonciirry, Boulia, and Alackaj lavedecline'cl -greatly. owing to ,the vigLaiice of the police. But at Palmerston, Broome,- Thursday Island, Croydon, ioraldtoiij- Cooktownj ■ and To\\ nsyiU.e ho evil exists to -a greater -or-less clo-n-ec. ■ Here is ail olhcial report irom 3toydon''.Though several Chinavrien \ave been heavily fined . . bU 'per .-cut. of'the aborigines here are ad"licted sTo the opium habit. 'Here-is mother from . ••Cairns--'. —-"During the year the number of prosecutions for unlawful' possession of opium, supply oi ipnmi and liquor to ■ aborigines, unlaM - rul employment of aborigines, and a few ) ther offences under the Acts have been tremendous." The police records roi the'whole northern coast-hne. teem with jrosecutions, and in 90 per_cent. or the iases the offenders are Chinese. j-he term '"White Australia" is a hollow mockery up north. ... : Space considerations preclude the roiuiting of accounts of recruiting expeditions by Malays and Japanese on the coast. Let it suffice that the condition :-of the helpless, 'aboriginals deplorable. The only places -where ,the> uro moderately well ofl are the ind Church mission stations. In jNct South ales the State mission settlements are well conducted. In Victoria the problem lias solved itself; the nice, ;avc for a couple of hundred—mostly ialf-castes —is extinct.- But.in. ostein Australia, Queensland, and the -North; srn • Territory the evil cries aloud tor •cdress. .. . . ~ There are two alternatives belore the i>e6ple of Australia. The first is, -ket ihem : die out, , Let the present state of things continue, until in course or time the. race becomes extinct. -M 11 is ivhat we are' doing. ...../■ . , The only other alternative.is for the Commonwealth to step inland, take a land.- There, must be 1< ederal, action, [t is peculiarly an Australian problem. Vt the pres'eut^time the States dole oat i few blankets : and a i[ew pounds of lour, and think they have done their luty-1' The Church is at,, last -awakonng to a sense'of its responsibility, but ts operations are restricted. llie btate should move, il -only an act of icjaration, and the payment of a national lebt. The reports of all the. mission ichools prove-.tliat the aboriginal is capible of bettering things. Is it not time ihat Australia - acknowledged her duty o the remnant that is left?