ABORIGINES OF VAN DIEMENS LAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 254, 5 January 1848, Page 3

ABORIGINES OF VAN DIEMENS LAND.

[From the Australian, Dec. 3.J Van Diemen's Land papers to the 27th ultimo came to hand on Tuesday last. It appears by a Government notice dated 4th November, that the number of aboriginal inhabitants returned to Van Diemen's Land from Flinders' Island, consists of 13 adult men, 22 adult women, 5 boys, and 5 girls. For public information, and to allay, perhaps, the dread which had taken possession of the public mind, his Excellency the LieutenantGoveruor, in the notice referred to, publishes the following really interesting information relative to the past habits of this remnant of Tasmania's primeval inhabitants :—: — Of the thirteen, two have been reared from boyhood amongst Europeans, three have been educated at the Queen's Orphan Schools, one. has been reared on the establishment of a settler (now deceased), and is a good bullock driver and farm servant : one is nearly blind : one is imbecile ; that, of the remaining five, four are from 45 to 55 years of age, — two of them having been pretty regularly employed as boatmen, and one having for years done the duty of cowherd, with a steadiness which would have been praiseworthy in men bred to labour. They have all lived about fifteen years in civilized habits ; seveial of them can read and write ; and they are almost all addicted to gardening. They raised in Flinders' Island, in gardens fenced by themselves, peas, beans, turnips, cabbages, carrots, onions,* parsnips, and pumpkins, besides cultivating fruit trees. The aboriginal women have lived in the practices of civilized life for even a longer period than the men. The children are to be educated and trained in a manner to lit them to mingle with, and to be ultimately absorbed into the community. The adult aborigines are now located at Oyster Cove. Respectable persons may visit the establishment ; and, on doing so, they will be required to write their names in a Visitors' Book kept there. The Lieutenant-Governor sees in the insignificant number of the aboriginal men few who have ever been at large in the colony ; •nd his Excellency possesses, in the fact of these men having acquired a taste for settled habits and industrial pursuits, and in their appreciation of the comforts and advantages of domestic life, a sufficient guarantee for their future good behaviour.