The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1909. UPLIFTING THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK

New Zealand Tablet, 2 September 1909, Page 19

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1909. UPLIFTING THE AUSTRALIAN BLACK

# BEAT strange, mysterious, fast-vanisliing race of the Australian blacks is one of the families of the human kind that have 'come down in the world.' The high elaboration of their language by itself alone is sufficient to prove the former condition of cultivation from which they have fallen. Human history bears no record of our race for ever advancing, much less advancing at the same pace all along tfio ""e, like regiments ' marching past.' The • historical evidence, indeed, points to an irregular pendu-lum-swing between progress and retrogression— material civilisation sometimes advancing among a particular people at the very time that art and morality are degenerating and nations falling away from the height of their olden civilisations, like the native races that now sit among the " massive ruins of Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, and the once fertile .plateau of Inyanga in Southern Rhodesia Peoples and races oscillate between rise and fall, growth and decay ' Civilisation,' says Lord Lytton in one of his speeches' obeys the same law as the ocean; it has its ebb and its flow, and as it advances on one shore it recedes on the other. It receded long ages since on the Australian shore —or on the shore from wh,ich the mysterious dark-skinned Australian aboriginal came. Where he has been uncontaminated by white man's vices he still retains many of the better qualities of the higher state from which l*e has fallen away. But contact with the worse and worst side of Caucasian civilisation has too generally been for him the blast of physical and moral degradation and death. And it is apparently only a question of time when the last Australian black will follow the last Tasmanian black ' afay in the ewigkeit ' of race-extinction. ' * The pride of place in the uplifting of the black man of the Commonwealth belongs to the Catholic Church In Western Australia. Some time ago we told in nutshell form the strange eventful history of the -great work of civilisation and religion that has been brought to so happy an issue by the Spanish monks of New Norcia. In. 1890 the Bishop of Perth (the Right Rev. Dr. Gibney) founded- a new mission at Beagle Bay. for the aborigines in the great north-west, in the Vicariate of Kiniberley, then attached to the first West Aiistralian See.- Eight years later the Trappist monks, who had wrought with much success among the dusky tribesfolk, were recalled to Europe. The Bishop of Geraldton (the Right Rev. Dr. Kelly), on whom the pastoral charge of the vast Vicariate had in the meantime fallen, lost no time in introducing the Pallotine Fathers to continue the arduous work of civilising and Christianising the children of the forest. Branch missions, now in a flourishing condition, were likewise opened at Broome and Disaster Bay; and one happy day in June, 1907, the Sisters v of St. John of God came to aid in the uplifting of the black population by training the women and -girls and acting as ministering angels to the sick and feeble. The toil of those zealous and unpaid workers has wrought wonders among the fortunate tribes that dwell within the sweet influences of the centres of true civilisation established at Beagle Bay and Broome and the Bay which is called Disaster. We have before us, in a recent issue of the West Australian, of Perth, a valuable, interesting, and highly

laudatory official report of a visit to the Beagle Bay Mission by Mr. James Isdell, Government Inspector of Aborigines (who, by the way, declares himself ' a member of the Church of England '). The Mission buildings, over twenty in number, ' haye B the appearance of a fair-sized village;' ' The whole of the material "used in their construction, except roofing iron and nails,' were (we are told by" Mr.Isdell) ' sawn and fitted on the ground. . . The slaughteryard is the best and cleanest I have seen in the State. . < Butcher's shop, cement floor, all tables scrupulously clean, all iron-work bright and shining, gratings for draining salted meat ; and Father Bischofs assures me that they have • never yet had any meat go bad, and they kill through all ( the hot weather an average of two beasts a week. I quite [ .believe it.' Then there are" the schools : one- for twenty-five boys, :and the girls' school presided over by the Sisters, who .instil the virtues of religion and impart the elements of ■.secular instruction to thirty-five of those bright, quick-eyed -little ebony-skinned .children of the woods (including ten ; small boys). The colored girls are likewise taught the -domestic arts under the happiest conditions in buildings :fitted with every convenience. There are" bathing facili- .- ■ties galore, and ' the boys and girls,' says the' Inspector 'in his report, ' have every inducement to keep clean "and learn cleanly habits.' In ..fact, the cult of local and per- ' :sonal cleanliness is brought to a point which almost reminds <one of the Dutch, who (as, we think, Hood somewhere -.remarks) wash everything except the water. ' Every buildiing has its own water supply,' and ' there is no carrying »of water anywhere.' The black boys are thoroughly {grounded in various useful and profitable trades. The shop away in that remote north-west- is (we :are told) ' one of the best-fitted-out shops north of Fremiantle. There are labor-saving machines of all descriptions, and for executing all classes of iron and metal work. Adjoining is a circular saw-bench, over which they are erecting a roomy shed. A few yards distant is a large carpenIter's shop, also well equipped with machinery, and any class <of carpentry, joinery, or fine cabinet work can be executed. The motive-power for the various machines in these shops and saw is a 6 h.p. engine in one end of the blacksmith's shop.. There is a large, roomy store, with goods of all descriptions, a saddle and harness room, cartsheds, and j many other buildings have their special and useful purpose. There are 10 lay Brothers, each of whom is a qualified tradesman in his own special branch: Engineer, driver, and metal worker (blacksmith and half-caste boy), . carpenter and joiner, tailor and sailmaker, gardener, stonemason and builder, butcher and baker, two cooks, a wellsinker in charge of boring- plant. All these are voluntary workers, no wages.' Gardening, agriculture, and other occupations relieve the tedium of -a well-divided day, and 'no one can say the children are either over-schooled, overchurched, or over-worked : the -day is so divided that no part of it becomes tedious.' * The children and indigeirtf'blacks are (says the Inspector) ' well and comfortably dressed, happy, and contented. I sent to the Mission .last year from out of the indigents' ■ camp at La Grange Bay three young children. I could not recognise them on this_ visit; they were in poor health, : miserable, starved mites, with a pinched and hopeless look in their faces. Father Bischofs called them up to me hi the schoolroom, fat, laughing, merry-faced little youngsters :as happy and contented as they possibly could be. One < could hardly believe that they were the same half-starved : youngsters, especially one little black girl, nine years old, ibadly deformed, with curvature of the spine. She was then.just a shapeless .little mass of bones "and deformity; now :you could not recognise her, fat, with a jolly laugh on Iher face and her c"yes sparkling with fun,- and most i.f : sfche deformity has" disappeared. I am perfectly satisfied 'that this Mission is doing a great and good work to these waifs and strays from the native camps, and' that they are being well taught and equipped with serviceable and useful knowledge for their future life. lam sure that a visit to this Mission from yourself or any of the members of the Government would confirm my- own impressions. ' I cannot close this account of .the children without referring to several of the full-bloods' and half-castes' great proficiency in the different trades they- have learned at the Mission. One half-caste boy 17 years of age is a really first-class' blacksmith, and has executed some very difficult metal work. He also lays all their troughing, water tanks, sets all the big boilers, and erects windmills with assistance. He has three full-blooded boys under 14 in the shop with him, and it is a pleasure to see the boys all striking to the halfcaste's time with his forge hammer, a great sparking 'heated piece in the forge, the three hammers, keeping perii ect time and no mistake made. It takes patience- and per;severance to teach aborigines to this perfection. There are

- three full-biooded boy's tlies same age in the carpentry shop, all proficient in various branches of carpentry. A Brother i is in charge of each of these shops, and has taught these! boys all they have learnt. A full-blooded boy,,. 16 years old, is a first-class tailor, and could turn yoti out as wellmade a suit as can be bought in most shops; he also has his -young 'black apprentices. There are boys also. learning to . be butchers, bakers, cooks, ,masons, bullock-drivers, etc- The saddle-room is in charge of ar half-caste lad reared in the Mission ; he does all the repairs, makes their hide ropes and ■whips. He-"is niarried to a half-caste girl, has his own cottage, and is allowed 30s per month to purchase his clothI ing, the Mission* finding them in food. All "the boys are learning something riseful, taking it in turns to attend to the various trades. The same with the girls; they take their turn in the sewing-room, the kitchen, and ,the laundry. One half-caste girl is a first-class machine hand.' ' All the ' station-owners in this district,' adds he, ' also speak highly of the Mission. Personally I did not expect to see things so far advanced in connection with the aborigines.. The training of the children is of a most useful character, and certainly will equip them for bettering themselves in the ' future. The rescuing of waifs and strays from the bad, contaminating influence of natives' camps and training them at this Mission is well worthy of deep consideration by the Government and the support of the general public' The Government (as we learn from the W.A. Record) show's its ' deep consideration ' for the uplifting of the blacks by voting for them an annual sum of £17,949 — of which no less a sum than £16,070 is spent on salaries to white officials! The paltry balance goes to feed and clothe and ' elevate ' the aboriginal. 'By a little calculation,' adds the Record, 'we find that the Government spends the. gigantic sum of about Is 4d — one shilling and fourpence per annum per black. ' - -