THE ABORIGINES.

. . . We have long held the opinion that as a people we are guilty of the basest meanness and dishonesty in our treatment of this unhappy race. . .
It would seem that never does the white man—the far-famed Anglo-Saxon—the true Caucasian—appear in a more thoroughly despicable light, than in his dealings with his less civilised brother. He takes possession of the land as a matter of course. He alters water-courses, drives off game, fences, clears, and cultivates, tears open the very bowels of the earth, and walks away with uncounted wealth while the original occupant of the soil, not only looks helplessly on, but sinks contaminated by new vices, and wasted by imported diseases, into premature extermination. And we—a Christian people—a God-fearing, magnanimous, intelligent race—with a history to look back to, and a character to support—stand quietly by, and do not feel the disgracefulness and sin of such a position !

As the mind continues to dwell upon the subject, it really becomes too humiliating and too irritating to be treated of with moderation. If the so-called " savage" be sufficiently astute to strike a bargain for his land, my noble Caucasian condescends to buy it. If the native be too simple and unguarded to stipulate for payment, it quite consorts with Anglo-Saxon purity to take it without payment. If Copper-color is so far advanced towards civilization as to know the value of property, and still more if he have such a knowledge of war as to make him dangerous, Pale-face fumbles at his breeches-pocket. If the Aboriginal be dull in intellect and deficient in physical force the white man thinks it no shame to steal ! What, to true nobility of nature would be an additional plea for fair and even liberal treatment—the helplessness and unsophistication of those we dispossess—become with us—oh, shame, shame that it should be so—the opportunity for dishonesty and fraudulent misappropriation.

We assert that under present circumstances this country has been shamelessly stolen from the blacks. Had they been like the New Zealanders or the North American Indians, we should have bought their land, and supplied them with the means of living when we took it. But being weak, and poor, and ignorant, we have treated them accordingly, and have ousted them without fee or reward. We protest against this as an act of as mean and cowardly tyranny—of as vile and flagrant dishonesty—as the world ever saw. We, the people of this colony, occupy in this instance, the position of cheats and swindlers, and we do not deserve that the land should prosper with us, which has been so dishonestly come by.

We do not mean to assert that each several member of our country is individually responsible for cheating and swindling. But the present furnishes a most instructive example of how a whole people may be betrayed by circumstances, or by their own inattention or incaution, into a most degraded position; may unthinkingly find themselves conniving at monstrous crimes, and dividing spoil obtained by most execrable means. For ourselves, we deprecate any share in this atrocious fraud, and we bring the matter prominently forward, in the certainty that the vast majority of our fellow-colonists will indignantly deprecate it too. The thing is so self-evident that it only requires ventilation to bring about reform. . . .
From the land taken from these people gold to the value of upwards of thirty millions sterling has been raised. In addition to this, millions upon millions of produce has been taken, in the shape of beef and mutton, wool, tallow, wheat fruits, and vegetables. Of all these millions—from an annual public revenue amounting to £2,792,152, we are content to award £1250 and a grant of £500 for a Moravian mission, to those whom we are rapidly consigning to extirpation ! Is it fair or honorable, or in any way compatible with that character which we sometimes so haughtily arrogate to ourselves? Or if we were a race of habitual cheats and swindlers, could we be well guilty of more contemptible over-reaching ?

Let us be distinctly understood in this! We are no parties to the cry of the mawkish sentimentalists, who weep over the sorrows of young negroes while their own poor starve around them. We do not say that the Anglo-Saxon was justified in taking possession of this country, and developing its magnificent resources, as the original occupant never would have done. If even our presence here should be made the instrument in the hands of Providence for the early elimination of this people, we still say that the onward march of the white man must not be arrested. But that is too great a readiness in recognising as "the hand of Providence" that which is directly traceable to our own nefarious neglect and wickedness. The colored race dies off before the white man, and therefore the latter black looks upon the process as the actions of natural law, and never troubles himself to ask whether what he is doing has a tendency either to hasten or retard such mournful consummation.

In other respects than grants of pure money, how have we behaved to the natives of this country ? Has it not been an established custom with us from the very first, to expose them to unprotected contact with the very vilest portion of the community? Was not our shepherd and hutkeeper, and bullock-dray class, long principally recruited from the convicts of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land? And were these men the advanced guard of whites in their intercourse with the aboriginal natives ? Pretty "pioneers of civilization," forsooth! And through agencies has not this whole race been contaminated with drunkenness, and irrecoverably impregnated with the most horrible diseases ? Have they not died off like rotten sheep under their influences ? Have not our up-country readers seen their wretched offspring masses of putrid sores, while still at the mother's breast, from disease transmitted in their very blood ? And have we ever tried to undo what has been done? Did we ever send out medical men amongst them to check the ravages for which we were responsible, or appoint places at which these unfortunate creatures could receive succor and advice ?

No. We are a Christian people ! We know that it is recognised as a natural law that the white man should exterminate the black, and it would be to war with Providence to do anything to protract the process ! We daily pray to the Almighty for forgiveness for " our trespasses." We do this with a good grace as always forgiving those who trespass against us, with that beautiful placability so characteristic of us Christians; and the daily muttering of a prayer like this fully absolves us from any further considerations of our duty! Noble Caucasian! Conscientious Anglo-Saxon ! Fine Christianity!

There is a view of the case which recent circumstances have invested with a peculiar interest. We have often asked our selves, by what means we justified the invasion of this country. No good man will advocate such invasion simply on the ground of superior might. Our answer has been—we fancy that the answer of every fair-dealing man must be—that we take the country from the blacks, because we can put it to better uses than they would do. But do we put it to the best possible uses ? And, if a race were to present themselves who would take measures to apply the country to still better purposes, are we prepared to resign it to them ? Take care how you answer, most magnanimous Caucasian! You may find yourself on the horns of a dilemma! A race presents itself. John Chinaman knocks loudly at the door. He shows that he cultivates his own land more perfectly than any people upon earth. He shows that foot for foot he gets a greater produce than any other man. His horticulture exceeds that even of our Coles and Rules. So nicely does he value the efficacy of manures that he sells urine in the streets in quantities as small as a half-pint. Be his small patrimony land—he raises two or three crops within the year! Be it water, there is a duck to every square yard ! Be it neither land or water—and lo! it teems with rice! Caucasian, the best use to which you put nineteen-twentieths of your land is to feed one sheep to the three acres. Room for the Mongolian !

You resist! You extirpate the black because he does not thoroughly develop the resources of the country! You resist the invasion of the celestial, although he greatly excels yourself in that respect! See then where we land you, most excellent Pure-blood! Your sole title is might after all! And in what respect does that present you better than as a powerful but unreasoning brute?
However, the land is to be invaded. The natives are to be dispossessed—exterminated. " What is it we would have done for them?" This we would have done. In less than twenty years we have nearly swept them off the face of the earth. We have shot them down like dogs. In the guise of friendship we have issued corrosive sublimate in their damper, and consigned whole tribes to the agonies of an excruciating death. We have made them drunkards, and infected them with disease which has rotted the bones of their adults, and made such few children as are born amongst them a sorrow and a torture from the very instant of their birth. We have made them outcasts on their own land, and are rapidly consigning them to entire annihilation. There are but few of them left, comparatively. This is what we would do for that few. We would feed and clothe every one of them. We would have local establishments constituted great centres for their concentration. We would give them medical assistance, protection and advice. We would educate them if we could—christianise them too, letting, however, the meat-cask, the flour-barrel and the sugar-bag wait closely upon the Bible. We would endeavor to coax them into a little work by indulgence in tobacco, greater variety of food, &c., and if they would not work, we would feed them still. If they chose at certain seasons to go away to hunt the kangaroo, to eat the bunyu-bunya, or to resort to some particular lake when some well-known fish was in its prime, we would let them go, in God's name ; welcoming them back, when they chose to come back, and having ready their pot of tea and beef and damper whenever that might be. If now and then they wantonly threw off their clothes, ran wildly to the bush, and forgot their catechism, we should keep our tempers, and wait patiently for their return. The lapse into so-called barbarism is but natural. We have seen the savage in his natural condition, and we have seen the civilized man in his pursuits, and we entertain considerable doubts whether the one, roaming freely through his beautiful woods, is not a lighter-hearted and happier man, than the care-worn merchant upon " 'change" as we find him scratching his head over the latest dishonored bill, or "whispering with white lips" the last report of an unexpectedly good crop of sugar in the Mauritius.

We mean what we say, literally. We would feed and clothe every black in Victoria, and would do this regardless of expense. If it cost ten thousand—well! If twenty thousand—well! If a hundred thousand, still well! Were they able to strike a bargain for their land, we should gladly purchase it at hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is dishonest to withhold it, because they are ignorant and helpless.

We would feed and clothe them as long as a black was left amongst us, and when the last was gathered to that Creator of whom he at present knows so little, we should rejoice to think that at the last great day, he could not arraign us for having behaved towards him here below, like a tyrant, a Coward, and a swindler.

The Argus 16 March 1856,