CIVILISATION FATAL TO MANY NATIVE RACES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17854, 24 May 1926, Page 13

CIVILISATION FATAL TO MANY NATIVE RACES.

DISEASE RESISTANCE WEAKENED BY NEW HABITS. Civilisation is apparent!v a taste which is acquired with difficulty by some races in the world, and many are dying out in the effort (savs the London ‘Observer’). A Canadian trader, Mr Archie MacDonald, who has recently returned to Edmonton from a trip of 1500 miles into the North, reports that the Liard River Indians, whose territory is along a tributary of the Mackenzie River, are fast becorhing extinct. lie believes that one contributory cause is the fact that the natives “have abandoned their airy tents, and are imitating the white man's l log cabin, which they usually build with very little window space and with a low roof.’’ The plight of the Liard River Indians is, of course, no new or isolated case. Twenty years ago the “Observer” published an article, on the causes of the moribund condition of the aborigines in many parts of the world, one of the primary causes being the wearing of European clothes. The natives, naturally, could not dress like Europeans and at the same time continue to oil their bodies, the' result being that they caught cold and died. An immense amount of harm was done, by the missionaries insisting on the natives wearing English dress; but in latter years they have adopted a more sensible attitude. When in the towns the natives like to dress as Europeans; but when back amongst their fellows they resume their native costume and habits, the sudden change often having fatal consequences. In the Polynesian Isles the measles have “carried off the natives like flies.” When the disease strikes a new people, who have never had measles amongst them before, it kills them very rapidly. It may be recalled how the King and Queen of the Sandwich Isles, when they paid a visit to London in 1824, both unfortunately caught the measles, and died within a week of each other. After clothing and measles, the next most serious enemies to the natives have been drink and opium, alcohol having proved especially fatal in Northwest America and West Africa. The Case of the Maori. “It is an extremely complex question,” said an expert in anthropology,, “as to what are the causes which make for the extinction of native races. They must either absorb civilisation or die out. It is a question of the survival of the fittest and the expansion of the strongest. Civilisation upsets the balance of native life, and administers such a shock to his whole , being that the native becomes totally demoralised, and it is this which produces sqch bad physical and, other effects.. If, however, the native has sufficient backbone, like the Maoris, who are holding their own, there is a chance of his surviving. The Maoris are still of .excellent mental and physical .stability, though, now that they are living in a peaceful and civilised state, they have lost a certain amount of their virility and physical perfection.” An example of a race which has become totally extinct is the Tasmanian natives, who were crushed out of existence by the harsh treatment of the Government. For a sjmilar reason there are very the "Bushmen” now left in South Africa. The “Bushmen” are purely nomads and hunters, and refused, to-be civilised; and in the early days they were hunted by the settlers like wild beasts- themselves. The little

yellow man of the bush is a very different person from the negro, who is a much more tenacious and adaptable person. * A like fate to that of the “Bushman” seems to await the Indian •in South America,- where the natives are receiving harsh treatment at the hands of the rubber gatherers, and are treated in many parts as slaves. The slavery is greatly -helped by the peonage system, under -■ which- a landowner makes advances of money to the natives, whom he usually also supplies with provisions, and thus he acquires a hold over them which virtually amounts to slavery. Moribund Races in Australia. In Australia the aborigines are also on the down grade, the disappearance having been most rapid in the older colonies, where the natives were brought more directly-under the control of the white men. The following table shows how the number of natives have dwindled between 1891 and 1921, the date of the-last census: 1891. 1921. Victoria 565 144 New South Wales 8.280 1.597 Queensland 25.000 12,614 West Australia .... 50,000 15,587 An exact comparison, however, cannot be made from these figures, inasmuch as those for 1891 included a proportion of half-castes, whereas the figures fo*. 1921 are for full-bloods only. In the case of Victoria the figures for 1891 showed a decrease of no less than 35.000 since 1835. The Fijians, another moribund race, furnish a further example of the deadly effects of the measles on the natives, for a third of the population was oar- ’ ried off by the disease. The natives . decreased from 114.748 in 1881 to 90.903 ; in 1903. and in 1921 this number had 1 been further reduced to 89,562. I “Still Going Strong.” i Mr Travers Buxton, the present sec- • retary of the Anti-Slavery and Abori- [ gines' Protection Society, expressed the l opinion that, if the natives are properly looked after by the Government, ’ and exploitation of their labour is not s allowed; they are likely to flourish and - increase in numbers. He instanced Pa--5 pua as a case in point, and said that - the Lieutenant-Governor, who had - studied the question, was of opinion l that the natives were increasing, alf though no statistics, were available. In East and West Africa, also, the natives were a very vigorous race; and the , same could be said of the Bantus, in r Central Africa. In Canada. Lennox j Island, in the province of King Edward 3 Island, was purchased for the .Micmac r Indians in 1916, when there were nearly _ 300 of them, and it is believed the number has increased. r Mr Buxton recalled that during the war one of this tribe called on him at his office on his way to the Western front, where several of his countrvmen were fighting. He informed Mr Buxton that his people were still going ? strong.