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
From a long experience, and an attentive observation of what has been
going on around me, I am perfectly satisfied, that unless some great
change be made in our system, things will go on exactly as they have
done, and in a few years more not a native will be left to tell the tale
of the wrongs and sufferings of his unhappy race. I am equally convinced
that all one-sided legislation--all measures having reference solely to
the natives must fail. The complete want of success attending the
protecting system, and all other past measures, clearly shew, that unless
the interests of the two classes can be so interwoven and combined, that
both may prosper together; no real good can be hoped for from our best
efforts to ameliorate the condition of the savage. In all future plans it
is evident that the native must have the inducements and provocations to
crime destroyed or counteracted, as far as it may be practicable to
effect this, and the settler must be convinced that it is his interest to
treat the native with kindness and consideration, and must be able to
feel that he is no longer exposed to risk of life or property for
injuries or aggressions, which, as an individual, he has not induced.
I have now nearly discharged the duty I have undertaken--a duty which my
long experience among the natives, and an intimate acquaintance with
their peculiarities, habits, and customs, has in a measure almost forced
upon me. In fulfilling it, I have been obliged to enter at some length
upon the subject, to give as succinct an account as I could of the
unfavourable impressions that have often, but unjustly, been entertained
of the New Hollanders: of the difficulties and disadvantages they have
laboured under, of the various relations that have subsisted, or now
subsist between them and the colonists, of the different steps that have
been adopted by the Government or others, to ameliorate their condition,
and of the degree of success or otherwise that has attended these
efforts. I have stated, that from the result of my own experience and
observation, for a long series of years past, from a practical
acquaintance with the character and peculiarities of the Aborigines, and
after a deliberate and attentive consideration of the measures that have
been hitherto pursued, I have unwillingly been forced to the conviction,
that some great and radical defect has been common to all; that we have
not hitherto accomplished one single, useful, or permanent result; and
that unless a complete change in our system of policy be adopted for the
future, there is not the slightest hope of our efforts being more
successful in times to come, than they have been in times past. That I am
not alone or singular in the view which I take on this subject, may be
shewn from various sources, but most forcibly from the opinions or
statements of those, who from being upon the spot, and personally
acquainted with the real facts of the case, may be supposed to be most
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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