The Daily News. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1905. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7732, 7 February 1905, Page 2

The Daily News. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1905. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES.

During last, week there were cabled to thie colony a summary of a report by Dr. Roth on the aborigines |of Western Austraiiai. and various criticisms of this liy the Police Commissioner, Sir John Forrest, and others. l>r. Roth is a member of 'the Queensland Civil Service whose abilities have been borrowed by the Western Australian Government for the purpose of getting a I fair and ukbiassed report from a thoroughly competent man. The scope of his commission permitted Dr. Roth to enquire into every a«Ipect of the treatment of the aborigines, 'both in their natural condilI lion, and in such cases as their entering into service with the white I set'tllers, or having been captured or 'imprisoned for offences against the Ja^\ [ Rightly to understand the posi- , ti'on of the natives of Australia it has to be borne in mind that they are a low, thriftless, and in many

| respects an incapable race. Physically they are, when well fed, quite jup to European average, and big ( nien and women are not by any maans uncommon among them. Mentally they are children, with capac - ty lor cultivation up to a child's stage, and no possibilities beyond that. Necessarily nomadic, because, living mostly by the chase they had to follow their game, the aborigines of Australia know nothing of housebuilding. A few sheets of bark stripped rapidly from the trunks of gum trees, a. few boughs thrown toI getter for a breakwind, and the j black fellow's "mia-mia" was complete. It was a partial shelter f»r at moat a few days,, and was left with no regret. For this reason the Australian blacks had no idea of home ; and yet, strangely enough, once they attach 'themselves to a European family and house nothing I short of physical force can keep them from returning there, even i though lit be but for a flying visit. ; Before the wlute man came the 'bracks in tribes roamed certain districts, .living on opossums, kangajroos, wild uucks, fish, and such oth;cr game as the district afforded. Of!wn they were hard put to it to find enoug-li to cut, and except in particularly fertile districts they were Ecldom well fed. ' In Tasmania,. NewSouth Wales, and within fifty years- the blacks have practically disappeared. The Taamanian aborigine is wholly extinct. In Victoria such few as sitijl; exiist are mostly housed at mission stations. where they live an easy and pleasant life, are well looked after—and are dying out as fast as they can. It is absolutely true these days that a man may travel across Australia from Bsifcibanle to Adelaide and never see a native), and that many grown persons, born and brought up in the colonies, have never seen one. The rapid disappearance of the thousands of aborigines who were at one time to be found in the fertile parts of Australia is not a fact for more than sentimental iegret. They wero dirty, and, left to themselves, very useless 1 ; also in some cases they were dangerous. The story of their, rapid melting away before the white man's gun and rum botUei, and, horrible to mention, before doses of atsenic and strychniue, is well known.

In Western Australia ft set of con-ditions-still obtain which are stuiilar to those of the Eastern States fifty years ago. In the older settled parts the blacKs have practically <i:od out, but throughout the wide stretches of the north;, which are as yet bui thinly occupied, the natives still exist in considerable numbers. Along the coasts they are in contact with the scum «f the world—pearlers and beche-de-mer lishem, who employ them more or less about thWr business, and ill return reduce them by drink and vice to the lowest depths of degradation. The north-west coast of Australia is a modern Alsatia and Pandemonium, combining men—white, yellow, and black, of nearly alii nations who work ami lighi and gamble and drink in every village alpng the coast from Fremantle round to Thursday Island, and the portion of this which ji es under the control of the Western Australian Government is reputodly the worst of ajl. In contact with men 0.l this class the aboriginals cease to to be anything but abject creatures, who are scarcely human, and there is no infamy and no degradation the story of which could exaggerate Hie common facts of their daily life. Dr. Roth's report 0 f this portion of Australian history >is pno which no person who has visntcd the region in question, wouild ever think of denying, unless with some personal purpose in view which made truth inconvenient.;

But almost worse than the vice and degradation of the black along the coasi line is the life lived l>y iiiaiiy of the indiiitu.-yd servants on the remote stations. Under Western Australian law, when a man takes up an urea of ground front the Government, he takes also the right to the labour of the natives who belong to that area. He is genera'ly constituted a J.P., and the nativespoor ignorant creatures, are indentured to him by having tt ~„,„,,. read to them in Engtiish, to which they make their mark. Uy this contract they bind themselves to work for and- 'Obey the orders qff their employer, and deprive theinselve.-i af nil, rights' except such as the employer permits. If they run away they uiay bu brought back, taken before tlie nfraivst J,P.—probably the next squatter of the ffelrijit, and ordered punishment, including /loggings. Most I'requentily the ceremoiiy of trial is- dispensed with. In slack seasons they may get permission to roam, and are indeed often ordered to do sv. Their food costs money ' and it is a s#vh,g that they should tcmpo.farily go away, B„[ woe betide them, man, woman or MiJW who should attempt to rove during ■shearing time.

These are .facts, and this, call it what Sir, John Forrest or ambody elsje may, is slavery. Also on Aii£ sralian road gangs (onlv Western Australian and New Zealand keen up the vile old system of workfiig prisoners in pub!ie) there may be seen gangs of blacks working in chains. This is usual, undeniably tnio, and a relic of "the system ;" and it is at things like these that Dr. Roth directs liis condemnation.