A MIXED RICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 53

A MIXED RICE.

Mr A. Meston, protector of the aborigines ii Queensland, has furnished to the Home Secre* tary (Sir H T'.zer) a report aboub tho Gayndab blackp, published in the Brisbane Courier, from which the following extracts are takeu :—": — " I wrb agreeably surprised to find the Gayndab "aboriginals in a condition much better than bad \ hzen represented. They appear to be less urgently in need of assistance than any blacks I had seen in the settled districts. They were camped in a beautiful «ud healthy situation. Their camps were superior to auy I Lave seen elsewhere in the colony, being clean and commodioui and thoroughly weatherproof. Tha blacks themselves were ■ clean and tidy and heaKby-lookiug enough to show that they are not suffering from starvation or much sickness of any kind. Painfully conspicuous are the number of halCbreeds, quadroons, and octoroons, some of tbe younger girls being sufficiently light-coloured to ba mistaken tot Europeans. The Chinese strain is apparent in a decided majority. Some of the young girls are of flue physique, and have beautiful eyes. With regular diet aud proper caro thes? girls would grow iuto very attractive womauhood. More than one respectable European resident are martted to women Bhowiug both aboriginal and Chinese ancestry, and those women bave matiu excellent wives. It is certainly not desirable to take those who chow more of the European and Chinese than the aboriginal parent and mix them with aboriginal-* in one camp on a reserve. It in clearly necessary to make come special provision for these remarkably light-co!o,ured descendants ot aboriginal mothers. At Gayndah the hlac-lc, white, and yellow races have crossed and re c:osßbd until they hare produced every intermediate ethnological type. There is probably no such astonishing blend in any other pat of Australia. It is certainly not desirable that such a blend be perpetuated. Thoufi lightcoloured girls are (-laced in a talss acd indefinable iatermtdiate. position between their ancstral race*. Like Jupiter's cradle, or Mahomet's coffin, they are midway between earth aud heaven, inhabitants of neither. They ought certainly not to . b'a mated with fullblooded aboriginals, »nd yet if left to grow up in their present environment they bave nob much proaptct of mating with husbands of a white race. Their usual fate is to become the victims of while men aucx Chinamen, who lunvo them to bear aU the responsibilities of auy contingent; circumstances. Consequently these light-coloured girls and women are placed in an unfortunate position, demanding our lament sympathy aud serious attention."

— The advantages o? {.dve<s;isiug were re« cent'.y illustrated iv London. A man advertised for the mturu of a lost cat. In less th-*n a week 322 of them were brought to hiß house.