Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
3. A certificate from the protector of aborigines that he has visited
this settler's house; that the stated number of natives were resident
there, and appeared to be progressing in the knowledge of that branch of
industry in which they were respectively stated to be employed.
29. It would be further necessary that any settler who intended to
endeavour to reclaim natives should give a short notice to the protector
of aborigines previously to the commencement of the first six months.
30. Could this plan be brought into operation the work of the
civilization of the aborigines would at once be commenced upon a great
scale; it would not be confined to a single institution, but a variety of
individuals, endowed with different talents and capacities for this work,
would at once be employed on it: it is indeed rather suited and intended
for the outskirts of civilization, thinly populated by settlers, than for
towns, yet it is applicable to both situations; whilst its direct
operation would be to induce the settler adequately to remunerate the
native for, as well as to provide him with, a constant supply of labour,
and to use every exertion by kind and proper treatment to attach him for
as long a period as possible to his establishment.
31. In considering the kinds of labour in which it would be most
advisable to engage natives it should be borne in mind that, in remote
districts where the European population is small, it would be imprudent
to induce many natives to congregate at any one point, and the kinds of
labour in which they should be there engaged ought to be of such a nature
as to have a tendency to scatter them over the country, and to distribute
them amongst the separate establishments.
32. Whilst in the well-peopled districts, where a force sufficient both
to protect and control the aborigines exists, they should be induced to
assemble in great numbers, for they work much more readily when employed
in masses, and, by thus assembling them on one point, their numbers are
diminished in those portions of the colony which have a small European
population, and they are concentrated at a spot where proper means for
their improvement can be provided.
33. The first of these principles has been strictly attended to in the
plan proposed in the 27th and following paragraphs of this report; the
second has been carried into successful operation in Western Australia.
34. In order that the work on which the natives are employed in the
vicinity of towns should be of the most advantageous nature it is
necessary that it should be productive of benefit both to themselves and
the Government which employs them, so that it cannot be complained of as
a useless expense, whilst at the same time it should be of such a kind as
to accord with that love of excitement and change which is so peculiar to
this people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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