Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 02Eyre, Edward John
History
Journals of Expeditions of Discovery into Central Australia and Overland from Adelaide to King George's Sound in the Years 1840-1: Sent By the Colonists of South Australia, with the Sanction and Support of the Government: Including an Account of the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines and the State of Their Relations with Europeans — Volume 02
Eyre, Edward John
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Ethnology -- Australia
[Note 51: I believe this case was not brought to trial.]
Other cases have occurred in which some of the circumstances have come
under my own notice, and when Europeans have committed wanton aggressions
on the Aborigines, and have then made up a plausible story to account for
what had taken place, but where, from obvious circumstances, it was quite
impossible to disprove or rebut their tale, however improbable it might
be. In the Port Phillip District in 1841, Mr. Chief Protector thus writes
to the local Government.
"Already appalling collisions have happened between the white and
aboriginal inhabitants, and, although instances, it is possible, have
transpired when natives have been the aggressors, yet it will be found
that the largest majority originated with the Europeans. The lives of
aboriginal natives known to have been destroyed are many, and if the
testimony of natives be admissible, the amount would be great indeed; but
even in cases where the Aborigines are said to be the aggressors, who can
tell what latent provocation existed for perpetrating it? Of the numerous
cases that could be cited, the following from a recent journal of an
assistant protector, Mr. Parker, of the Lodden, will suffice to shew the
insurmountable difficulty, I may add the impossibility, of bringing the
guilty parties to justice, for in nine cases, I may say, out of ten,
where natives are concerned, the only evidence that can be adduced is
that of the Aborigines.
"This evidence is not admissible. Indeed the want of a code, suited to
the Aborigines, is now so strongly felt, and of such vital importance to
the welfare and existence of the natives, that I earnestly trust that
this important subject may be brought under the early consideration and
notice of Her Majesty's Government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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