Aborigines of Australia.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17661, 12 August 1929, Page 6

Aborigines of Australia.

NOT A VANISHING RACE. . The last aboriginal native of Tasmania died in 1876, and it is customary to j speak regretfully of the Australian abo- , rigine generally as “a vanishing race.” , But is this opinion in accord with the i statistical information available? It seems j not. The Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics has prepared tables showing j that the number of full-blooded aborigines i in Australia is 60,000, wljile there are up-i wards of 17,000 half-castes, many of whom are living in a nomadic state. ’ ,

An eminent authority on the Australian j aborigines, Dr W. Ramsay Smith, remarks * that it is impossible to form any accurate : estimate of the number of aborigines in! Australia at the time when the white man I first arrived there, but' he 'mentions that- ‘ modern writer's show a remarkable unan- i imity in recording the aboriginal popula- 1 tion at the time of the first settlement as | 150,000.' ; All that can be said of this is that it is j a mere guess. When the Commonwealth | first came into being it was found that the j aborigines enumerated at the census of 1901 numbered 41,389. They were distributed as follows : West Australia 5,261 Victoria ... • 271 New South Wales 4,287 Queensland 5,137 South Australia ... ... 26,433 Unreliable.

But precise numerical information regarding the aborigines still in the ‘‘savage- ’ state was of a nature and could be regarded as the result of mere guesswork. In 1911 the Commonwealth authorities announced the total number of aborigines “in the employ of whites” in Australia as 19.939.

In January of last year the Commonwealth Bureau published the net results of the last three censuses of aborigines as : 1925- full-bloods. 13,393 halfcastes. 1926- full-bloods, 15.1C2 halfcastes. 1927- full-blood s ; 15,468 halfcastes. Reading these figures in connection with those just published, it is clear that the aboriginal natives are not “a vanishing race” by any means. Indeed, it seems that they are actually increasing slightly ■ in numbers, or at least are holding their own. —Melbourne “Herald.” }