ABORIGINES’ VALUE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19126, 22 September 1936, Page 6

ABORIGINES’ VALUE

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE

SYDNEY, Sept. 0

The value of the Australian aboriginal from a defence standpoint was stressed by Dr. C. Duguid, of South Australia, a former moderator of ike Presbyterian Church, in an address to members of the Millions Club yesterday.

Along the entire north coast of Australia, from the Kimberley district to the Gulf of Carpentaria, he said, the confidence of the native races should be cultivated. Closer attention should be given do their medical needs by regular patrols, and tho malaria infested swamps should be thoroughly drained. “The intelligence of the native in the bush is so far above ours,” added Dr. Duguid, “that if ever the country was being invaded by Japanese we would know directly the first man landed. If we had the confidence of the native wo should know of any invasion weeks before wo could hear from white men.”

l)r. Duguid suggested that the. Government should establish a dopot, with patrols, in tho Musgrave Ranges, in the fa-,- north-west of South Australia, to hold the natives to their native slopes and to prevent them from getting down to the cast-west railway and across to the north-south line,

where they inevitably became derelicts.