ABORIGINE MENTALITY EQUAL TO WHITES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 192, 3 November 1927, Page 6

ABORIGINE MENTALITY EQUAL TO WHITES

STUDY BY AMERICAN Hr. Warner, of the Rockefeller I on* dation, whose services have been to the Australian National IteseßrtJ Council, and who has been engage* since March on the study of the aborigines in the Northern Territory, ■ back in Sydney. Hr. Warner, who made liis UeadqutJJ ters at Crocodile Island, said his won was an attempt to get a racial Ua*s‘* fication of Australian aborigines also an attempt to secure the uuafc lying basis of native civilisationhad measured several hundred ‘ gines on the mainland and neighbour ing islands, and the rest of the tin*j was spent in the study of language am the natives’ social life. Although the mentality of the abon* gines was equal to that of white P e fP* their civilisation went back to the s*t age. It was that fact which put tnw behind the whites. Another concw* sion which Hr. Warner reached _ that the moment the white civili**** touched the black, it meant the struction of the black, chiefly “Ccaf"] his civilisation was so well balan and so carefully worked out tha * to touch one cog in it meant tnai would fall to piecesHe found that where the blacks _ never been touched by white civi tion they were still going about co pletely nude, or wearing only * cloth. He found the natives loyal honest, and if treated correctly if" were all right. There had been tai native stealing. He had had occa»«j to leave his camp on the mainland * cross to Crocodile Island, leaving ® v thing in his camp, including toba Natives liked tobacco, yet did tOUCh it. - -nr. It was a great mistake, added Warner, to have missions in . where blacks had not been touched • white populations. Natives were ing the lives they had lived for last 20,000 years, and Le tbougn wrong and impertinent to send sionaries there. Where white tion had entered and the natives longer looked for tribal life, he tnou* it was a good thing to have Hr. Warner expressed hi* belie* _ some system of indentured iatH>u, LjJ the Northern Territory. This, he saj would give white settlers a be* chance to meet the high tariff. W’ould create jobs worth while for h dreds of white men. The Northern * ritory Commission had tremend, problems ahead, and he douw whether it would succeed under ent conditions.