I wish not to assert that the natives have been often treated with wanton cruelty, but I do not hesitate to say that no real amelioration of their condition has been effected, and that much of negative evil and indirect injury has been inflicted on them.
The first great fault committed was that no distinct rules and regulations were drawn up for the protection of the Aborigines. Their land is taken from them, and the only benefit given in return is that they are made British subjects, that is, having a right to the protection of British Laws, and at the same time becoming amenable to them.
WRETCHED STATE OF THE NATIVE POPULATION.
All past experience has shown that the existence of two different races in a country, one of which, from any local circumstances, is considered inferior to the other, is one of the greatest evils under which a nation can labour; a more striking instance of which could not be adduced than is shown in the present state of the free coloured population in America.
In contemplating, then, the future destiny of the Australian races, at the same time laying aside all thought of their amalgamation with Europeans, the prospect is most melancholy. Only two cases can arise; either they must disappear before advancing civilization, successively dying off ere the truths of christianity or the benefits of civilization have produced any effect on them, or they must exist in the midst of a superior numerical population, a despised and inferior race; and none but those who have visited a country in which such a race exists can duly appreciate the evils both moral and physical which such a degraded position entails upon them.
CAUSES OF THEIR DEPRESSED CONDITION. PREJUDICES AGAINST THEM.
If we enquire into the causes which tend to retain them in their present depressed condition we shall find that the chief one is prejudice. The Australians have been most unfairly represented as a very inferior race, in fact as one occupying a scale in the creation which nearly places them on a level with the brutes, and some years must elapse ere a prejudice so firmly rooted as this can be altogether eradicated, but certainly a more unfounded one never had possession of the public mind.
INADEQUACY OF SUPPORT BY LABOUR.
Amongst the evils which the natives suffer in their present position one is an uncertain and irregular demand for their labour, that is to say, they may one day have plenty of means for exerting their industry afforded them by the settlers, and the next their services are not required; so that they are necessarily compelled to have recourse to their former irregular and wandering habits.
Another is the very insufficient reward for the services they render. As an example of this kind I will state the instance of a man who worked during the whole season as hard and as well as any white man at getting in the harvest for some settlers, and who only received bread and sixpence a day whilst the ordinary labourers would earn at least fifteen shillings. In many instances they only receive a scanty allowance of food, so much so that some settlers have told me that the natives left them because they had not enough to eat.