"The policy of dealing out gifts to individual Indians I consider cannot be too strongly deprecated, as it is both degrading and demoralizing. To treat the Indians as paupers is to perpetuate their baby-hood and burdensomeness. To treat them as savages, whom we fear and who must be tamed and kept in good temper by presents, will perpetuate their barbarism and increase their insolence. I would therefore strongly urge the Government to set their faces against such a policy." He recommended, on the positive side, that money be put into Public Works for the benefit of the Indians. It will thus be seen that Mr. Duncan held substantially the same views with regard to annuities as did the Agents and superintendents south of the Line, whose well-conceived ideas were nullified by the officials and contractors in the East.[73] As has before been remarked, the Colony of British Columbia made no special effort for the education of the Indians. It was averred on the part of the Government that "the Government merely deferred the subject, believing that it was far more important in the interests of the community at large to first reclaim the Natives from their savage state and teach them the practical and rudimentary lessons of civilized life."[74] Beyond establishing reserves, however, and placing the Indians under law, one fails to see how the Government directly tried to teach them these "practical and rudimentary lessons." Certainly there was no effort by the Government to teach the Indians agriculture or any of the practical arts, as there was south of the Line. There were other ways, however, in which the Colonial Government did help the Indians at considerable expense. In surveying reserves, and in keeping whites off of them; in the suppression of the liquor traffic; in exemptions from tolls, taxes, and customs; and in direct pecuniary aid for the destitute and the sick, the aggregate expenditures and rebates were considerable. Moreover, the Magistrates in the several Districts were to act as Indian Agents, and to advise and protect the Indian "in all matters relating to their welfare."[75]