In writing to Sir G. Gipps, Lord Stanley says (Parliamentary Reports, pp. 221, 2, 3):—­

“Downing-street, 20th December, 1842. 
“Sir,

“I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches of the dates and numbers mentioned in the margin, reporting the information which has reached you in respect to the aboriginal tribes of New South Wales, and the result of the attempts which have been made, under the sanction of Her Majesty’s Government, to civilize and protect these people.

“I have read with great attention, but with deep regret, the accounts contained in these despatches.  After making every fair allowance for the peculiar difficulty of such an undertaking, it seems impossible any longer to deny that the efforts which have hitherto been made for the civilization of the Aborigines have been unavailing; that no real progress has yet been effected, and that there is no reasonable ground to expect from them greater suceess in future.  You will be sensible with how much pain and reluctance I have come to this opinion, but I cannot shut my eyes to the conclusion which inevitably follows from the statements which you have submitted to me on the subject.

“Your despatch of the 11th March last, No. 50, contains an account of the several missions up to that date, with reports likewise from the chief Protector and his assistants, and from the Crown Land Commissioners.  The statements respecting the missions, furnished not by their opponents, nor even by indifferent parties, but by the missionaries themselves, are, I am sorry to say, as discouraging as it is possible to be.  In respect to the mission at Wellington Valley, Mr. Gunther writes in a tone of despondency, which shews that he has abandoned the hope of success.  The opening of his report is indeed a plain admission of despair; I sincerely wish that his facts did not bear out such a feeling.  But when he reports, that after a trial of ten years, only one of all who have been attached to the mission ‘affords some satisfaction and encouragement;’ that of the others only four still remain with them, and that these continually absent themselves, and when at home evince but little desire for instruction; that ’their thoughtlessness, and spirit of independence, ingratitude, and want of sincere, straightforward dealing, often try us in the extreme;’ that drunkenness is increasing, and that the natives are ’gradually swept away by debauchery and other evils arising from their intermixture with Europeans,’ I acknowledge that he has stated enough to warrant his despondency, and to shew that it proceeds from no momentary disappointment alone, but from a settled and reasonable conviction.