AN EXTINCT RACE

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 22

AN EXTINCT RACE

THE TASMANIAN NATIVE. HOW HE DIED RIGHT OUT. The recent discovery of the skeletons of 20 Tasmanian aborigines on Tasman Peninsula induces Mr E. M'Caughen to write to the Melbourne Leader on the interesting subject of the extinct Tasmanian race, v. ..oso origin has puzzled ethnologists for more thaji a century. Though conclusively proved by geologists that Tasmania at one period was joined to the Australian continent, the inhabitants of the island differed in several essential •features from their more numerous neighbours on the mainland, for, while the latter have long, straight, coarse hair, the Tasmanians had woolly or curly hair, and were of a slightly lighter colour. The Tasmanians wore also of a lower type of intelligence, being ignorant of the use of the boomerang, the wpomerah, or throwing stick, and the shield, and the theory is now generally accepted that thev belonged to an entirely distinct race. But whence they came is still a matter of conjecture. Some scientists, including Professor Huxley, who have investigated the subject, believe they came from New Caledonia, many of their characteristics strongly resembling those of the natives of that French possession. Sir William Flower, however, whose opinion carries considerable weight amongst students of anthropology, asserts that they are of Papuan stock, end that at one time they inhabited the whole eastern portion of Australia, when they were exterminated by the ancestors of the present Australian aborigines, the Tasmanian portion of them only escaping owing to their insular situation. The question of their origin is still further complicated by the discovery of some ethnologists that they closely resembled the Andamanese, a race who inhabit an isolated group of islands in the Bay of Bengal. But -whatever their origin may be, their history is a particularly sad one, and affords one of the only instances on record where British rule has not proved a blessing to its coloured subjects.. At the period when the colony was first founded, the native population is variously stated to have amounted to 5000 or 7000. In the face of subsequent knowledge, however, -these figures appear to have been considerably in excess of the actual number. Backhouse, the Quaker missionary, considers they never exceeded 1030, while Dr Milligaii, eminently qualified to speak on the subject, having been commandant at Flinders Island, considers there -we're never more than 1500. DEPORTED TO AN ISLAND. There are those still who have seen some of the remnant of the Tasmanians, for the last male, William Lanne, survived till 1869, and the celebrated Truganini only died as recently as 1876; but several decades of intercourse with the whites had modified, if not entirely changed, their primitive customs, and it is to the pages of the histories of the various exploring expeditions, and to the official reports from the commandants and surgeons of the establishment at Flinders Island, where the blacks were deported in 1832, that we have to turn for particulars of this forgotten race. After reference to the contact with the Tasmanians of Tasman, Cook, and Marion du Frcsne, the writer describes Governor Arthur's cordon across the Island of Tasmania which proved a fiasco, resulting in the capture of two blacks, a man, and a boy, and cost the Government £30,000. WISE AND GENTLE METHODS. But what the most influential, persons in the colony were unable ,to effect by force was being accompiisiied by an obscure bricklayer, George Augustus Robinson, by peaceable means. Robinson had been placed in charge of the blacks on Bruni island, and being well acquainted with their language, he proceeded, accompanied by Truganini and several others of the Bruni tribe, o-i a mission of conciliation. His efforts were entirely successful. He traversed the island, and by 1834 he had induced every black in the island, with the exception of a couple whose existence was not then known, to surrender to the Government. They were.placed on Flinders Island. The settlers viewed with satisfaction the transference of the blacks to Flinders Island, but those actuated by a desire to prolong the race soon realised that captivity was to hasten their end more rapidly than the muskets of the white.

Accustomed to the freedom of the bush, the well-intentioned efforts of the surgeons of the establishment in inducing them to sleep in cottages engendered consumption, and other pulmonary complaints, against" which the poor wretches seemed to have no powers of resistance. Their numbers dwindled rapidly. From 225 existing in' 1830 in 10 years only 58 remained. Surgeon Barnes* says:—' 'More than one-half hare died, not from any positive disease, but from a disease physicians call 'home sickness.'" In 1847 a last effort was made to save the miserable remnant, then reduced to 44, and they -were removed to Oyster Cove, but here they became associated with a band of dissolute sawyers, whose drunken habits they soon acquired, and by 1869 the last male, William Lanne, died as the result of a drunken spree at the early age of 34. Four females survived him, but Trugamni, who had so faithfully served Robinson on his conciliatory mission, the last of them, died in 1876 and with her the race ceased.