AUSTRALIA'S FAR NORTH

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 62, 6 December 1919, Page 11

AUSTRALIA'S FAR NORTH

A LAND FOR HALF-CASTES

MISSIONED VIEWS

Twenty-eight years ago Mr. Nicholas Hey look cbaige of the I'resb'ytcnr.n itission at Aiauoon on the Gull of Carpentaria. Recently Air. Hey arrived in Sydney witlu'Mrs. Hey, ' having relinuuished his post to a successor.

"Lookins back on it all now we can say that our years away in the north were iully occupied, and we think usefully. It has been well worth while. The mission was established by the Presbyterian Church of Australia at the request of John Douglas, then president at Thursday Island, to serve the needs of the aboriginal population in what was then a terra incognita. Tho Queensland' Government reserved a bloi-k of country having an area of 3800 square, miles, extendiiur from the Batavia to the Archer rivers. Within that area our work has gone on. When Invent.in there twentyeieltt vcars ago to open the mission there was nothing but bush and wandering natives. Eventually we established hcadouarters at Mapoon. Tho primary object of the mission was. of course, to convert the tribes to Christianity, but the mission, was not. confined to that, object. From the beginning the mission laboured to establish industry—to induce tho natives to concentrate on work of various kinds—to loach I hem habits of order and thrift. Our efforts met with the mingling of success ami want of success common to such' undertakings, but progress wad, on the whole steady. Tho homestead principle has been followed throughout, and in time men' were induced to settle upon individual blocks of their own. carrying on minor industries to provide for sustenance and home consumption, and taking part in' the larger activities. .Development, has latterly been very satisfactory. Apart from individual honie-stead . work the principal indust.'ies are cattle raising, copra making, and liecho do mer catching. Last rear Ihe income from I hose sources was .£2IOO. The outiay in connection therewith bein-» ■CM'OO. tho natives thus had a credit of ,£7OO from outside trading."

About tho future of the. Gulf Country Mr. Hey has formed very definite views, "The deterrent from white settlement to any extent thereabouts," he says, "is of the most powerful kind. You cannot build up a permanent population anywhere if the climate imposes upon parents the necessity of separation fiom their offspring, and it is as certain as . anything can be that residence along the I Gulf is impossible -for white children. Tlu future must be in the hands of a psople acclimatised from birth, and for that reason our obligation to the halfcastes Is overwhelming. The full-blood-ed natives have no future except extinction. They are dying out. The half- . castes, on the other hand, are a virile people and are increasing. Mapoon has been made a reformatory station—that is to Bay, a place whence neglected children may be i>ent from contiguous conntry. Many half-castes come to ns this way. That they are highly intelligent and tractable is open to no doubt whatj ever. The younger tho mission gets tl.pni the better, naturally, since it is important they should go t<s school and I Ik, from the earliest years, accustomed to order and self discipline. I am I hopeful that before long a complete j im-.i.sure of segregation will he provided | fo:- tho Gulf mission, so us to keep these j backward p-.-oplo entirely within the area 'set apart for tliein. If this is done and insisted upon for two or three generations then the arts and'crafts of civilisation may be""leanicd and contact with j the outer world be permitted. Tlk' im- : p;.flaiit. thing is to give the people already there a chance of development—of. working out their own salvatidn—instead of leaving them to perish, or to have 'nothing but demoral'sntian before I t'u-iu."

Mr. Hey mentioned that there are about 10(H) people on the reserve. Tin school at Mapoon is attended by 77 children. There are also outstations, missions at Weipa and Aiirukun, and another mission at Mornington Island. During the whole of Mr. and Mrs. Key's residence at Mapoon they were the only whites there.