CHAPTER 18.  INFLUENCE OF EUROPEANS ON THE NATIVES.

CAUSES WHY IT HAS NOT HITHERTO BEEN BENEFICIAL.  INFLUENCE OF EUROPEANS ON THE NATIVES.

After reviewing the condition of the Aborigines of Australia as it appears to have existed from time immemorial it will not be irrelevant to examine what change or melioration of their social state is likely to arise from the settlement of a civilised European race among them.

The colony of Swan River differing materially in the elements of its population from those established in the eastern parts of this continent and in Van Diemen’s Land, a corresponding change in the intercourse existing between the natives and the white population might naturally be looked for.

In modern times, with the exception of the new settlement of South Australia, no colony has been established upon principles apparently so favourable for the development of the better qualities of the Aborigines, and with so fair a chance of their ultimate civilization.

The apparent advantages are that no convicts have been brought to Western Australia to corrupt the manners of either sex, or to lead them astray by their vicious example; and that a great want of labour has been always felt, so that any assistance that could have been procured from the natives would have been a material benefit to the settlers.  With these advantages we might have hoped to see some important results.

I wish not to assert that the natives have been often treated with wanton cruelty, but I do not hesitate to say that no real amelioration of their condition has been effected, and that much of negative evil and indirect injury has been inflicted on them.

The first great fault committed was that no distinct rules and regulations were drawn up for the protection of the Aborigines.  Their land is taken from them, and the only benefit given in return is that they are made British subjects, that is, having a right to the protection of British Laws, and at the same time becoming amenable to them.

WRETCHED STATE OF THE NATIVE POPULATION.

All past experience has shown that the existence of two different races in a country, one of which, from any local circumstances, is considered inferior to the other, is one of the greatest evils under which a nation can labour; a more striking instance of which could not be adduced than is shown in the present state of the free coloured population in America.

In contemplating, then, the future destiny of the Australian races, at the same time laying aside all thought of their amalgamation with Europeans, the prospect is most melancholy.  Only two cases can arise; either they must disappear before advancing civilization, successively dying off ere the truths of christianity or the benefits of civilization have produced any effect on them, or they must exist in the midst of a superior numerical population, a despised and inferior race; and none but those who have visited a country in which such a race exists can duly appreciate the evils both moral and physical which such a degraded position entails upon them.