Children of Wild Australia

by Herbert Pitts

If we visited Yarrabah to-day, by means of our magic carpet, what should we see?

First we should see the head station, and we should be told that there were five other settlements, little Christian villages in charge of an aboriginal catechist, within a few miles of the head station, and that altogether no less than 350 natives and half-castes were living happy, contented, well-conducted lives.

The first visit some of us would be inclined to pay would be to the school where we should see quite a number of dusky little scholars. The head teacher is a white—one of the missionaries—but most of the teaching is done by several excellent and fully-qualified aboriginals who themselves learned their very first lessons in that same school and were once wild blacks. Some might like to hear the children read and would probably be quite surprised to find that they were able to acquit themselves quite as well as British children of the same age. This would be true, too, of their writing. Some of the older children would be able to bring out some really beautiful specimens of penmanship for our admiration. They also do sums, but these, perhaps, they do not take to quite so kindly as some of the other subjects. Still, we should probably find that they do almost as well as children of other lands of the same age. But the subject which is regarded as of supreme importance at Yarrabah school is the religious teaching. If the teachers were asked to quote some text which might be taken as the motto of their school I think they would choose those words from the last verse of the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job, "The fear of the Lord that is wisdom," and they would tell us that the most important of all knowledge is the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why the Christians at Yarrabah have not only attained considerable intellectual development but have also, in many cases, become true saints. A few years ago at an examination in religious subjects, open to all the children in Queensland, white and coloured alike, the whole of the twenty-three first-class certificates which were awarded, were won by children of Yarrabah.

Perhaps as we came out of the schools we should like to pass into the homes where the children live. Many of them, however, remain at school as boarders, their parents living in one or other of the little villages on the reserve. How different these homes are to the rough, uncomfortable humpies described in Chapter IV which form the homes of the poor children of the wilderness. Each home at Yarrabah is a little cottage of wood and iron with two or more rooms which has been built by the people themselves. It stands in an enclosed garden in which mangoes, sweet potatoes and other vegetables are growing and for part of the year beautiful flowers bloom brightly. In some of the cottages the little flower patch is the children's especial care. Everything within the house is beautifully neat and clean. The older girls help their mothers to keep it so. They wash and make and mend, and as many of them dress entirely in white there is plenty of work to do.

After our visit to some of the homes we pass into the little Church dedicated in the name of the first British martyr, St. Alban. The very name reminds us of that for which the church stands. It stands there to turn the heathens into good soldiers of Jesus Christ like St. Alban. It is far too small for the needs of the little community which lives in its neighbourhood, and we hope before very long to be able to build a much larger and better one. It is of white wood and across the chancel is carried a scroll with these words upon it, "Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left."

Services are held in it every day at 7 A.M. and 7 P.M., and nearly every one comes. On one side are seated the boys and young men, on the other the girls and unmarried women. The missionaries and the married couples take their places at the western end, while the babies and infants squat and occasionally crawl about on the floor. Most of them sit or stand very reverently with folded arms. A little black curly-headed boy plays the harmonium, and the choir enters noiselessly. Their feet are bare, their long surplices reach nearly to the ground, their scarlet loin cloths sometimes showing through them. An aboriginal catechist in all probability leads the service, also wearing a surplice. Everything is done exactly as it would be in an English village church. On Sundays the psalms as well as the canticles are sung. On other days they are sometimes read but very, very slowly, for it must be remembered that only the younger members of the congregation, those brought up on the mission, are able to read. The lessons from Holy Scripture, too, are read very slowly. The reverence and devotion of all alike, the hearty singing not only with the lips but with the heart, are a wonderful illustration of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for these dusky children of a savage and primitive people.

After church each morning there is an interval for breakfast and then a parade for work. The children pass into the school, the men and boys to their allotted tasks on the farm or in the different workshops, the women and unmarried girls to their various domestic duties. All are given something to do and all are required to perform their tasks to the satisfaction of those set over them. Yet I do not think anyone would talk about "tasks" at Yarrabah. There is a suggestion of unpleasantness, of an imposition about the word, but no one looks at work in that light at Yarrabah. It has become almost second nature and a delight to them here. Sometimes, of course, when the weather is very hot and close and sultry they do not work as well as at other times, but what white man or child would not prefer to rest under such circumstances? Even the tiniest children like to feel they are doing something and very soon learn to run about and pick up rubbish and fallen leaves and so help to keep the settlement clean and tidy.

Up on the hillside is the hospital where the sick children, as well as the men and women are carefully nursed and cared for by a kind black matron and nurses.

There is a branch of the Church Lad's Brigade, and a most efficient brass band.