[“The Beagle Bay Mission”, The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Saturday 09 February 1901, page 37, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33200013]

THE BEAGLE BAY MISSION.

THE QUESTION OF ASIATIC POPULATION.

INTERVIEW WITH BISHOP GIBNEY.

The fact that the Trappist authorities are endeavouring to acquire a title to the land occupied by them at Beagle Bay has aroused some comment as to the methods and plans of the missionaries. It has been alleged that they are encouraging the introduction at the mission of Manilamen and other Asiatic races. It has been urged that such land settlement is not in the interests of the colony, and the cry has been raised, or suggested, that the State should not carry out its agreement with the missionaries if it is found that this form of land settlement is intended. As Bishop Gibney has only recently returned from the mission, after an extensive sojourn there, a representative of this journal waited upon him, in order to get an explanation about the point of Asiatic population at the mission, and the intentions of the mission authorities with regard to it.

We have noticed that exception is being taken to your statement about leasing portions of the Beagle Bay mission lands to Manilamen, my Lord?

“Yes, I have seen that it has excited some comment. Unfortunately, those who have started the cry either misunderstand the position, or, if they understand it, they are ungenerous. The bogey, which has been created is purely fictitious. Some remarks of mine which are capable of reasonable explanation have been wrongly interpreted, or I have expressed myself badly. I will, therefore, be very glad to give you any information you may seek on the matter.”

Is it a fact, then, that part of your programme at Beagle Bay is to encourage there the settlement of Manilamen?

“No, certainly not. In every sense the mission is for the blacks, and it was for their civilisation that the Trappists came here. It has been for their moral and spiritual improvement that the European houses of the Trappist order have so liberally endowed this mission. Our work there is for the blacks, and for them only. At the same time, I will candidly admit that the Manilamen element has forced its way into the question, and in a way that has compelled us to take some notice of it.”

In what way do you mean?

“I mean in this way. Unfortunately, the Asiatic races in the North, who are engaged in pearling, cohabit in an alarming degree with aboriginal women. Now many of these men are Catholics, or have been reared under Catholic influences. As protectors of the blacks, we have been forced to encourage these men in some cases - and for obvious reasons - to marry the native women. It was only right that this should have been done. We were bound to protect the native women as we would protect the white women under similar circumstances, and we have found generally that there has been no objection on the part of the Asiatics to take as wives the native Women with whom they have lived. We do not in any way encourage this state of affairs. It is, rather, the only way of making the best of a bad piece of business. The cases are very infrequent, and there are only two or three such mixed marriages at the mission. I must say that those we have there are very successful and while I prefer to see the native women take up only with the people of their own race, still I have had ocular demonstration that their marriage with Manilamen has not been the disaster that has been suggested.”

And are all the marriages that have been so contracted been undertaken for that one reason?

“No, I will not go so far as that. At Broome, for instance, we had a missionary working amongst the blacks and the Manilamen. This priest, I may say, was very popular with the Manilamen, as he spoke their language and understood their ways. He has had cases where a Manilaman had grown fond of a native woman, and expressed a desire to be properly married, in which request the native woman has asquiesced. Here of course, he could have no hesitation. They were both members of his Church, Both, were thoroughly taught the responsibility of the married state, and every care was taken to see that the desire for marriage was a proper and right desire. You know that the Catholic Church is very strict in its requirements of the marriage bond, and we do not allow any to lightly undertake such a solemn state without thoroughly educating both parties up to it. Now, was it not far better that in such cases the people should be properly married under the eyes of a religious institution they have been trained in? Otherwise they would simply have done as many others have done, they would have lived together for a short time, and the woman would have become degraded both in the eyes of the coloured men, and the eyes of her own people.”

Yes, I see your point. But tell me, how is it that the Manilamen are there, and cannot some means be devised of keeping them from interfering with the natives?

“I wish from the bottom of my heart that there could be devised such a means. I have seen sights at Beagle Bay when the pearling luggers have come in for wood and water that have made me only too sad for the poor unprotected natives. The Manilamen, as you doubtless know, are brought here under contract with the pearlers. Neither myself nor the missionaries have had anything to do with their coming here. In fact, their presence near the mission is a constant source of anxiety to the missionaries, and we would get on much better if the natives were entirely removed from any outside influences, be they coloured or white. But as the law of the land stands, you cannot drive natives away from where the coloured men are, or prohibit coloured men from visiting the camps of the natives. I am sure if the general public had only a slight knowledge of the condition or affairs as between the Asiatics and the natives, they would applaud our action in marrying them where it seems desirable. But these are only rare cases, and, as I have said before, we have only one or two such married couples at Beagle Bay. And they live well together, I am proud to say.”

Is there a half-caste problem in the north, then?

“Yes, there is, I am sorry to say, and that is what we seek to avoid. The proper care of the unfortunate half castes is as important as the care of the natives themselves. They are entirely neglected, and you can imagine the status of a grown-up half-caste woman. It is a sad state of affairs, and we are bound, in the interests of decency and morality, to attempt to bring about a different state of affairs. But that is quite another thing from encouraging Manilamen to settle on the mission in numbers, and that, I tell you emphatically, is a thing we have not done and have no intention of doing.”

To whom will the mission concessions be granted?

“To the natives, I take it, through the medium of myself in trust. We will not have the lands for our own use. They will belong to the natives, and we will not be able to sell the place even supposing a tempting offer came along, which is highly improbable in that isolated region.”

Then, practically, the mission will still remain a native reserve?

“Yes, I suppose that will be the practical effect of the title that we expect to obtain. There is nothing unusual in it. By the Land Acts of the colony, the Government is empowered to grant aboriginals up to two hundred acres of land each. If you take the number of adult natives we have there, and allot them the land provided by the Land Act, you will find we could, under ordinary conditions, acquire for them a larger area than we are asking for. So that after all the opposition to the granting of the land which seems to be at the bottom of the criticism of our methods, is based upon a want of knowledge of the land laws of the colony, a want of appreciation of what we are asking for, and an entire ignorance of the status of the aboriginals in the north.”

Will you get your concessions?

“I don’t think there will be any trouble on that point. We have a very clear arrangement with the Government, and we say we have fulfilled our part of the agreement. They practically agree to that. It is only, therefore, a matter of detail that will require discussing. The principle that we have earned what we are asking for has not for one moment been disputed. The Government would naturally object to granting us the land if they thought we were going to people it with Asiatics. We can, however, give them every satisfaction on that point while claiming the right - under special circumstances - to permit married Asiatics and native couples to take up their abode there.”

And will the Trappists be satisfied with a title of that kind?

“Yes, so long as it secures to them the right to use and occupy the land whilst engaged in civilising the natives. I take it that the title we are asking for while not permitting of the manipulation of the land - will so secure the Trappists that they may continue their work without fear of disturbance. That, you can see, is a most essential condition. The Trappists look to me to protect them in this matter, because it was on my representations they came. And I only made such representations after the Government had conditionally promised the land. While, therefore, I am prepared to accept a title in my own name in trust for the aboriginals and their descendants - in this way guaranteeing the country against the future manipulation of the concession - it will, of course, be quite clearly set out that the Trappists, as teachers of the blacks, may have the undisturbed enjoyment of the land, so long as they carry on their mission work.”

AB notes:

Gibney declares: “Unfortunately, the Asiatic races in the North, who are engaged in pearling, cohabit in an alarming degree with aboriginal women.” The interaction of Malays and ‘Manilamen’ with Aborigines became a serious problem over the next few years. It was a central issue. See for example the testimony of Constable Bertram Fletcher, La Grange Bay.

It seems that Gibney is ‘toeing the line’ on Asian influence:

“The Government would naturally object to granting us the land if they thought we were going to people it with Asiatics.”