AT LA PEROUSE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1267, 24 October 1911, Page 3

AT LA PEROUSE.

THE HISTORIC SPOT VISITED. IXTEHnSTI.YG IM I'UKSSIONS. "Trespassers not admitted without permission"! A board with this injunction, printed nailed to a three-railed fence, a biscuittlirow nbovo the creamy Well of a littlo crescent-shaped cove, lapped by the waters of historic Botany Hay, raised llin curiosity of a recent visitor from Wellington "to Iα Pernuso, Hie poinl on tho coast of Se\r South AY.nl" near Sydney where the WaknpunUa cable makes union with the bis t'ommonwc.illh across tno waters of tho Tinman Sea It had been rainiii" in the forenoon, and Sydney-town felt just a little steamy to (lie ynitcrlinnco tho pleasant train-rule to the coast where La l'erouso landed in l.sS. Piqued by curiosity as to why ll.e public should be debarred from admittance to the Ins undulating paddock backed by a hill-siik-clump of' bronzc-prccu gum-trees inquiry wa= made as to the reason tor the sipn. "Thai's (ho Government camp for 'ho aborigines!" volunteered a visitor \t this point a wcli-fle?hed black of , middle a?e lounged out ot one ot tho | half-dureil corrugated iron wliarcs or "humpies," which kept a rough line parallel with the beach within the enclosure. May we come in? "Yes, certainly," was the answer m mod English. As we climbed through the fence the well-fed son of tho soil leisurely approached to meet us, smoking a vvc-11-Ecasoncd briar. Then 1™ talked! Beinsr a bit green I expected the ! man would meet us with some sort of . gibberish or at leapt broken-Lnßlish, but I to our surprise he spoke the language in good Engtis-u-good Australiaa-Lnglish should Ik tho qualification, and a closer inspection of his burnt sienna features denoted tho presence of blood in his veins that was not the pure aborigine, and features which endorsed the white in him. How many natives live hero:' "About seventy, columns a:H Ikuk's— sometimes more, sometimes less. Iho visiting blacks from the oc ast have tho right to pitch here, but it was about here, 1 underhand, that the original bydnoy blocks used to live." It is a Government reserve, I suppce , .' "Yes-the Government put up tho houses and lielp us along a bit Ihey give us something towards the keep o the youngsters and the old people, deal out "blankets once a year. . 1 Jen we have the fishing-good fishing m the bay, and plenty of firewood from the bush— it's not so' bad!" . i And it did not look it. Tho resmcus I smoke from fires of bluegum twigs ami leaves floated lazily round in (he clear, warm air, minsrlin? pleasantly with the fresh, clean, earthy scnit ot the rainircistened earth. The grey clouds wlr.cJi had muttered thunder in the forenoon had drifted out to tho west, and tho ns iins boats, a stone's t.luw from the beach, rodo in a s"a as clear and reflective _as mirror-glass. Hr-rc was an ideal spot tor tho pas-ing ef the simple life, and licre wero remnants of a people who kd it in that corne-r of tho bi» continent. Only the big hotel-liko building of the Lastcr-.i Extension Cable. Company on the mo across the road, and the clang of a tram-car-bell from behind the nearest knoll indicated proximity to advanced civilifa- - "Look out! tlio» fellows down there arc throwing boomerangs. You want tc watch them!" . As he spoke a small propellcr-lwe object whirled over our heads with .lghtaing spaed, singing the whirring song of the boomerang, as it made a large and then two smaller circles, until it exhausted itself near the foot of the throwor-a wizened, little, undersized black. witli_ a short, scrubby, black beard, and piercing Rick eyes. Lazily he picked up the ancient m'issi'.o of his forefathers, faced us, thr-MV liis right arm back, and once more hurled tho shaped stick directly at us. Involuntarily we bobbed to avoid trouble. Tliero wa< none. Iho boomerang passed thirty feet over our 'heads, shot through the air swifter than a hawk otter its prey, and dcEcrihiii" three or four perfect circles descended spinning to the earth. It was a iascmatin" sight to one who had never seen I the Australian black at the Rome. And boomerang-throwing is only a game or recreation. Thorn is nothing utilitarian in it. Wo had imagined that tho natives u-cil (he boomerang to kill (jame or to cleave the skull of his sworn enemy. !Nothii'.R of the kind. Our informant snid if they did hit anything, it would only be by'chance, and in the bush they would be losing their boomerang the wholo time, 'i'iio little man who had been throwing so dexterously approached us, and once more it was the accent of Woolloomoolloo that surprised. He belonged to the North Coast blacks, but had travelled in his lime beyond Australia. Ho said ho went away to Africa with tho first lot of contingenters from New South Wales, and had been present in several actions,, and named Modder River, Vnal Eiver, Jiloomfontein, Paardeberg, and Knuberlev with amazing glibncsa. 'Do you spoak tho native language? "No, I can't talk the lingo—there's not many hero who can. Some of tiic very old people speak it amongst themselves, but most of us can neither speak nor understand it. I wouldn't have it on my mind, anyhow." Then it's becoming a dead language? "Down hero, yes—none of the young or middle-aged can speak the lingo, but there's still a go:d many up the coast: and in Queensland and the west who talk it, but it's dying all right, as settlement; goes on. The other day a lady came down to take notes—she is going to try and get tho hang of it to preserve it. What's tho use, anyhow!" _ • At this juncture an aged aborigine, with a bent spiuo and a fringo of white whiskers hobbled across the paddock uuder pressure of half a sack-lull of bottles, he had been out collecting. Does ho speak the lingo? tho writer asked. "Not a word, and he's about eighty, I guess. Ifs deader than Greek down here!" So we passed on, not without that feoliug of regret which accompanies the prospect of anything dying. Yet with tho cable station, a wireless and an electric tramway within a stone's throw, and one of the moit thriving cities in the Empire within live miles, how could it bo otherwise.