THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1905, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK.

I DR. SOTH'S ALLEGATIONS. OPINION OP AN ADCKLANDER. An Auckland man who has liad a great deal of experience among the Australian aboriginals is Mr Harold Fenton, who was for secen years connected, with the mounted police in North-Western Australia. He has new settled down in his native city, and can impartially comment upon the allegations made by Dr. Roth about the treatment of the natives. Mr Fenton was interviewed by a "Star" reporter, to whom he talked freely on the interesting topic of the hour, and expressed the opinion that things had been exaggerated. "I nave been on stations from one end of the colony to the other," he said, " and although, there have been cases I have never personally seen a squatter ill-treating natives. Wheal a nigger commences to work for you you must make him understand that yon are T>oss,* even if you have to be severe." "What do you mean by 'severe?" "Oh, a hiding may he necessary, but only once. He is all right afterwards. People in this country," continued the ex-trooper, "do not understand the Australian native. Without a doubt they are a degra-ded kind of being, but they are not cruelly treated." "Are they chained up?" ■ The reply was in the affirmative, and Mr Fenton said that this was usual all over the colony. The chains were bound with leather, and although it seemed bad to New Zealand people to chain a human being, this was absolutely necessary, and was not a cruel process. "I'd defy an artay to keep a single black fellow if Lhere was bush about, and he was unchained," declared ilr Fwiton. "As to Dr. Roth's charges against the Western Australian Government, we know they chain natives, but I they must protect squatters. A man goes threa or four hundred miles tuck to settle, and the blacks begin to kill his sheep. lie sends for the niounu'd troopers. SLnd they hunt for weeks to catch the thieves, finding a few one day and a few the nert. It is impossible to keep them unless they are chained. Not very long ago when I went to Perth we used to see a gang of white convicts chained together, going up the street every morning, and we took no notice of it." To New Zealiinders -who ore unacquainted with the conditions prevailing between the squatter and the aboriginal it will be interesting to state that as the blacks have no use for money, and would not appreciate it if they were given any, the squatters make agreements with them to do so much work for so much food, blankets, or othtfr commodity valued by the native. He then adopts bis master's chain, wearing it until his contract expires. The necessity for the chain was, to Mr Fenton's eyes, obvious, for without it the native would disappear before the contract concluded, and once in the bush be could be found about as easily as tlie proverbial needle in a haystack. Mr Fenton believes that eomebody has been "stuffing" Dr. Roth. "Stuffing," he eeays, "is an old game practised in the ! coast towns upon anyone who is known to be making inquiries into the state of the black race, and many ex-station hands loafing in the towns are capable of giving lurid evidence about cruelties -which -were never practised."