TREATMENT OF ABORIGINES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 10 May 1907, Page 2

TREATMENT OF ABORIGINES

A BLOT OX WKSTHALIA'S NAME. SliVEliE CltlTlClSAl. Received Hill, 10.40 p.m. Pel-ill, .May <J. Bishop (iibney, in a letter to the Press, severely critised the treatment "( aboriginals in Westralla. He says his object is to draw attention to the lethargy ol the authortics in preventing the abuses exposed two years ago. lio points out that owing to their land being taken from them, and the small amount allowed for their maintenance, the aboriginals are driven to acts cf depredation. Arrest- follow-, and then commence the barbarous practices exposed often, but ill spile of everything permitted to form part of a system that has everything to condemn it, and nothing is being done to remove Ihe tarnish on the name of the State.* The natives' natural supplies of food have disappeared, and if they kill a sheep to save themselves from starvation, they must go to prison. If they go into the territory of other blacks, tliev are speared ; 1 They are arrested indiscriminately, anil [ often chained, one to another, to the nocks of police horses. They seldom

escape conviction, anil many •do not know for what offence they are imprisoned for years, and kept in chains day and night. Host of Uieiu do not live long after arrest. Treatment oi this description to dumb animals would he counted gross cruelty, yet to natives it is claimed to bo what the law demands.