Australia's aboriginal policies

Sir Ernest Shackleton (left) and some of the men the Aurora brought back from the Ross Sea (from...
Sir Ernest Shackleton (left) and some of the men the Aurora brought back from the Ross Sea (from left, standing) R. Richards, A. K. Joyce and (sitting) J. O. Gaze and E. Joyce with dogs that accompanied the men on their sledge journey. — Otago Witness, 21.2.1917.
The West Australian Government spends approximately £25,000 each year in caring for the blacks and half-castes within its borders.

Only the "civilised" aboriginals — that is, those within the borders of civilisation — who are estimated to number 13,000, come under the supervision of the "protectors", as the Government officials who have charge of this work are called. There is an unknown number of wild blacks, who are always dangerous, in the remote interior and away to the north and north-east. The average number of blacks maintained by the State each month varies from 1000 to 1500. In the past, able-bodied men and women have been included in the parties receiving rations, but the tendency now is to support only the aged and incapable, and force the other natives to accept employment, of which plenty is available. There are rationing stations scattered over the State wherever required, each in charge of the police or of a sub-protector. The Chief Protector reports that in some districts the full-blooded natives are fast diminishing. One inspector who visited 14 rationing stations, saw only five children. Another inspector says that in a goldfields camp of 100 natives only six were under the age of 10. At the large Laverton camp there were only three children. The percentage of aged and infirm in these camps was large. Generally, the evidence is that the old people are dying off rapidly, and the births are few. In one district (Kimberley), however, large numbers of children are reported. The half-castes appear to be increasing everywhere.  Sickness of various kinds takes a toll, and particularly veneral disease, but an effective organisation is combating this.

• Mr J. K. Macfie, hon. secretary of the Otago Branch of the Overseas Club, has received from the headquarters of that organisation an official acknowledgement of the receipt by the War Office of a cheque for £1500 to defray the cost of the "Otago" aeroplane. The acknowledgement is couched in the following terms:- "I am commanded by the Army Council to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 6th instant, forwarding a cheque for £1500, which has been collected by the residents of the Otago district of New Zealand, and forwarded to the Central Committee of the Overseas Club by Mr J. K, Macfie, the secretary of the Dunedin branch, to pay for an aeroplane for the use of the Royal Flying Corps. The council desire that an expression of their great gratitude for this gift should be conveyed to the generous donors."

• A petition in the following terms, signed by 79 bowlers who used the bowling green in Queenstown Domain last month, has been forwarded to the general manager of the Tourist Department:- "We, the undersigned visitors to Queenstown, find our enjoyment much restricted through the abolition of the weekly ticket on the Domain Bowling Green. Most of us are in the habit of taking our usual holiday here; some of us have been coming here for years. The bowling green is the chief attraction for us. Most of us are men of very limited income, and feel that the abolition of the weekly ticket is a hardship. If the present commutation ticket be used as a weekly ticket, it means an increase of 275 percent on the old rate, which, we think, is an unreasonable increase.  Your petitioners would therefore beg that the weekly ticket be instated at a 50 percent rise on the old rate — that is, the charge should be 3s instead of 2s. We feel sure that the financial return to the department will be better under such rate, and the satisfaction of a large proportion of visitors to Queenstown will be enhanced." — ODT, 20.2.1917.

 

• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

Comments

The numbers were diminishing and the whites didn't make the connection with their nineteenth century genocide?