AUSTRALIAN BLACKFELLOWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 161, 17 October 1910, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN BLACKFELLOWS.

We have lately heard a good deal by ' cable from Weatralia about, the. -black- ■' iellpws,' who bave been on the i" ithe'latest beW , are going to km the gentlemen who kill- . ed,?omo of. their tribe if they can get within boomerang, distance. The avpr--1 fge New Zealander has been taught that I |he. Australian black is-one of thejmost primitive races on'earth,'and if he believes this he will also believe that he knows ' arid cares nothing about what we call • "justice." His justice is the justice of i. the mob, which is alike in any country, ! in all ages, among all people. The black- ! fellow has never been known to commit crime without reason. His rela- '' 'tfons;-with the white man have always i been hard on the blackfeHpw, man drove his food away, and he took the food that the white man. grew. The L, white man, Retaliated with the rifle, for ;itj the earlier days it was, no "crime" to shoot a pilfering blackfellow. The aenfjc, ( of justice in the blackfellow made <him retaliate in the only way—'by means of spear, nulla nulla or boomerang. When tame, the blackfellow is as harmless as a .pet lamb. He was never really wicked until he was taught by the white man, but under such tuition he drinks himself to death in short order, forgets the stern tribal moralities, and becomes iniquitously sodden. He was never particularly constructive, for he had no need to be. He lived in a country in which he could sleep under the sky all the year round, and because he fancied a leafy "mia-mia" instead of a "skyscraper" he has been dubbed the "lowest type of human." He has also • been looked upon as extremely base because he did not wear clothes that were unnecessary to him, and he has been "shot out" (man, Avoman and child) for trying to keep himself alive by raids on the white man when the native game had been driven back. Hi 3 tribal customs are peculiar. The blackfellow never forgets an injury or a kindness. He will die for a kind friend, and kill an enemy. The Laverton blacks will kill those other fellows if the police don't kill them—a likely proposition. There is no woman suffrage in Blackfellowdom, and the wife is subject unto her husband. He kills the 'possum and she carries it home. He is kind to her in his way, he adores the children, and he is devoted to the old people. But when he finds it necessary to leave a camp and seek other hunting ground he doesn't provide homes for the aged needy. He consults with, the old men and women who are unable to travel, and they beg lum to tomahawk them, which he does with reluctance. Any white man who has had real and not mere hearsay knowledge of blackfellows will admit that they are generous, honorable and absolutely faithful to a friend, if the friend possesses similar qualities. Rouse a blackfellow to the point of '•'vendetta" (which is a very poor word under the circumstances) and it is life or death . One other curious custom. Blackfellows in their vendetta are curiously clever. One Queensland tribe (and we believe some others) would much rather capture an enemy than spear or boomerang him. The "old man" of the tribe then drugs the prisoner with a drug known to all blacks, and performs a surgical operation, removing the intestinal fat and sewing the patient up. He is then allowed to escape. The fat is worn in the thick hair of the capturer—and the patient does not feel happy ever after. The absurd idea that 'blackfellows are all physically decadent is common. Many Queensland, Northern Territorv and Westralian blacks are from Gft to Oft Gin in height, and have magnificent ' development, and nobody on earth can grow hair like a real out-and-out bush blackfellow.