[“The Aborigines Question”, The West Australian, Monday 30 January 1905, page 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25373062]
THE ABORIGINES QUESTION.
THE INVESTIGATIONS BY DR. ROTH.
A COMPREHENSIVE REPORT. DRUNKENESS, DISEASE, AND CRIME.
IMPORTANT RECOMMENDATIONS.
The Government have received from Dr. Roth, the Commissioner appointed to inquire into the administration of the Aborigines’ Department and the employment and treatment of the aboriginal and half-caste inhabitants, the report dealing with these questions. The specific matters upon which reports were asked were:
(1) The administration of the Aborigines’ Department.
(2) The employment of aboriginal natives under contracts of service and indentures of apprenticeship.
(3) Employment of aboriginal natives in the pearl-shell fishery and otherwise on boats.
(4) The native police system.
(5) The treatment of aboriginal prisoners
(6) The distribution of relief.
(7) Generally into the treatment of the aboriginal and half-caste inhabitants of the State.
In his long statement to the Government, Dr. Roth, inter alia, says:—
Your Commissioner’s inquiries have been confined chiefly to the condition of the natives in the Northern and North-Western areas of the State and have been based largely on information conveyed by 42 witnesses, drawn from various conditions of life. Much also has been gleaned from communications received confidentially. Attention has only been paid to occurrences taking place within the last three years. It is to be regretted that, owing to the limited time at the disposal of your Commissioner, he has been prevented making any investigations throughout the central and southern districts other than those in connection with the mission stations, but his duties as Chief Protector of Aboriginals, Queensland, demand his return to Brisbane at an early date.
ADMINISTRATION OF ABORIGINES’ DEPARTMENT.
The Chief Protector of Aborigines has no legal status, while his authority as head of the Department controlling the welfare and protection of the natives is a divided one, and may be even ignored. Indeed, so far as the labour conditions of aborigines are concerned, honorary offices are invested with greater powers. With the exception of his clerk-accountant, he has no subordinate officers from whom, as a matter of right, he can command obedience in the execution of his instructions, though it, is true that other Government officers are assisting him, but only as a matter of courtesy. There are believed to be only one or two Protectors of Aborigines gazetted; one Resident Magistrate believes and acts as one from an ex-officio point of view. The Chief Protector daily meets with difficulties in regard to not possessing necesary powers for even enforcing the provisions of the present imperfect Acts, and, until quite recently, in his efforts to obtain redress for the representations made on behalf of the natives admittedly under his care, has not met with that encouragement which he had a right to expect. All the Resident Magistrates examined approve of decentralisation in the working of the Department, an approval recommended by the Chief Protector himself, in the sense that there should be one person responsible for each district, and that one responsible to head office. One man cannot thoroughly understand the whole State, the work being too much; what the whole thing really requires is constant, active, personal supervision, there being so many chances for abuses. It should not be in the power of any Justice to interfere with this local, as distinguished from the Chief Protector. In the opinion of another witness, in the West Kimberley district, honorary Justices ought to have nothing whatever to do with aboriginal matters. Sometimes such an individual, on account of his treatment to natives, is not even fit to be a Justice, nor is his proposed appointment to such a position necessarily referred to the Resident Magistrate. Your Commissioner recommends legislation on the lines of sections 3 to 10 of the Aborigines Bill as laid before Parliament this last session:—“A Bill for an Act to make provision for the better protection and care of the aboriginal in habitants of Western Australia.” Amongst the duties of the Chief Protector, additional to those defined in this Bill, would be the regular instruction of all aboriginal institutions subsidised by the Government. The clerk-accountant should be relieved of his accountant’s work, which could be transferrred to the Treasury, where vouchers would be paid only on the Chief Protector’s Certificate. As clerk. he would thus have more time to devote to his specially departmental duties, and train himself for the position of Acting Chief Protector when that gentleman is away on his annual inspection work. With regard to the local Protectors, each should act as the assistant and deputy of the Chief Protector, and should report to him, and communicate direct with him in all matters of aboriginal interest. Each should forward to him a monthly return of all convictions, prosecutions, and relief issued in his dis trict, as well as an annual report. As these local protectors will have extra duties and heavy responsibilities, great care should be exercised in their appointment—a matter in which the Chief Protector should necessarily have a say: where possible, use should be made of the Resident Magistrates or senior police officers. Honoraria varying from £50 to £25 per annum should be given for these extra services.
EMPLOYMENT OF NATIVES UNDER CONTRACT.
Aborigines are employed with or with out contracts, and under indentures of apprenticeship. Your Commissioner recommends the legislation covered by sections 19 to 21 and sections 24 to 31, in the proposed Aborigines Bill. The sooner the indentures of apprenticeship are cancelled the better. In order to present the present abuse of maintaining the native only during a few months at a time and then turning him adrift to shift for himself, when, if under contract, he is prevented working for anyane else, provision should be made in section 31 that if his leave of absence is extended beyond the limits mentioned therein, the contract will lapse. If children of school age are in employment, and a school is available, the employers should be compelled to fulfil their duties in this respect as the legal guardians under the Education Act. The police should be instructed not to lend any assistance whatever in the way of bringing back runaway na tives, except, of coure, when armed with proper warrants. With a view to recouping the Government for the expense, not only of granting aboriginal indigent relief, but also of benefiting the natives generally, and the half-caste waifs and strays in particular, your Commissioner further recommends a minimum wage of five shillings per month on land and ten shillings per month on boats (Q. 1902, No. 1, sect. 12) exclusive of food, accommodation, and other necessaries; the period of leave of absence to be also paid for. By section 60 of the proposed Bill both aborigines and half-castes may, under certain circumstances, be exempted from the provisions of the Act, including the labour conditions.
EMPLOYMENT OF NATIVES ON BOATS.
Separate written agreements with endorsement have to be entered into between natives engaged for employment
in the pearl shell industry, “or any other industry which shall necessitate the conveyance of such aboriginal by sea to the scene of such industry.” The endorsement, which can be signed by an inspector of pearl fisheries, a resident magistrate, a protector of aborigines, or a justice of the peace, is with a view to safeguarding the interests of the native so far as freewill, length of service, etc. are concerned. The person who endorses has to take and keep a copy of the agreement. Aborigines can thus be employed on the boats contrary to the wishes, and even without the knowledge, of the chief or other protector: nor are the particulars of such employment bound to be communicated to him. On the local boats at Broome there are about twenty-five natives signed on, and about twenty whose agreements are not witnesed (endorsed), although there is no doubt that these 45 are working on the boats. These natives are employed at cleaning shell or as boatman (not divers), and are sometimes retained to keep watch on the rest of the crew, so as to prevent pearls being stolen. They are all on a twelve-months’ agreement, and receive no wages. The practice at Broome appears to be for Western Australian natives not to he signed on the ship’s articles, evidently on the excuse of the special agreement with endorsement which is not necessarily even properly filled in. The Port Darwin natives here have to sign articles. Male children, as already mentioned, are taken to sea under articles of apprenticeship, i.e., by evasion of the spirit and intention of the Pearl Fishery Act. Native women are taken on the boats in strict defiance of the Act. There are unseaworthy boats engaged in the industry, that one witness thinks it is to the pearlers’ interests to keep in use, and that carry aborigines. Of the 400 odd pearling boats engaged in the North-West fisheries, the shipping mnaster at Port Hedland and acting sub-collector (acting as shipping master) at Broome, do not know which or how many are registered under the Merchant Shipping Act—a rather important item of information, considering that, provided the vessel be not registered she cannot be prevented going to sea if unseaworthy. Furthermore, both these officers are doubtful whether they can stop a vessel carrying more men than her articles show. Apparently, there is no compulsion for the luggers to carry lifebuoys. Owing to there being no aborigines engaged in deep-sea diving, it hardly came within the scope of the present commission to inquire into any results directly attributable to the extraordinary absence of any compulsory governmental inspection of the diving gear. Vessels are not boarded by a shipping master on his own initiative, even if at all. The Act gives any justice, etc., power to board a vessel, with a view to examining the stores, but there is nothing to show that this has been exercised within recent years. One witness’s boats have not been boarded and examined since 1886. There is no limit to the amount of liquor, opium, etc., which a boat may take to sea. Of the former your Commissioner is informed that this is sold to the crew as “goods supplied” for slop-chest purposes at the rate of 10s. yer bottle for whisky and from 12s. to 15s. for gin. The administration of the Pearling Acts at Broome, the centre of the pearling trade, is admitted by the Acting Resident Magistrate to be very mixed.
DRUNKENNESS. ETC.
Along the whole coast line, extending from a few miles south of La Grange Bay to the eastern shores of King Sound, drunkenness and prostitution (the former being the prelude to the latter), with consequent loathsome disease, are rife among the aborigines. This condition of affairs is mainly due to Asiatic aliens allowed into the State, as pearling boats’ crews, by special permission of the Commonwealth Minister for External Affairs, and allowed to land from their boats under conditions expressed in I. Ed. VII., No. 17. section 3, subsection K. The boats call in at certain creeks, ostensibly for wood and water, and the natives flock to those creeks, the men being perfectly willing to barter their women for gin, tobacco, flour, or rice. The coloured crews to whom they are bartered are mostly Malays, Manilamen, and Japanese. They frequently take the women off to the luggers. Direct evidence of this state of affairs comes from La Grange Bay, from Beagle Bay (where your Commissioner saw native women at daybreak returning on shore from the boats with presents of rice, etc.), and from Cygnet Bay, where the disgraceful state of affairs and effects of disease on the aboriginal population are more fully detailed. One magistrate considers that the whites are just as much to blame as the coloured crews for the prostitution going on where the boats land for getting wood and water. As the result of their intercourse with aboriginal women the boats’ crews suffer a good deal from disease, and the loss of their labour in severely felt by the pearlers.
UNSCRUPULOUS PEARLERS.
During about three months in the year the fleets lay up at Cunningham Point, Cygnet Bay, Beagle Bay, and Broome, as well as at other places; except, perhaps, at Broome, this laying-up season is taken advantage of by the more unscrupulous of the pearlers to swell the profits of the slop-chest by getting rid of their supplies of opium and of liquor, no small portion of the latter ultimately
finding its way to the natives. A still greater evil, and one which may have disastrous results in the future, is that both the Malays and the natives, with whom they are at present allowed to consort, possess in common a certain vice peculiar to the Mahometan. It is highly probable that this habit, practically unknown amongst the autochthonous population of other parts of Australia, has been introduced along this north-west coastline by Malay visitors during past generations; the fact remains that these aliens are being admitted into the Conmmonwealth. Further north, beyond King Sound, along isolated patches of the coastline, pearling vessels certainly do land, and their crews bring firearms ashore. A witness states that Asiatic crews may camp on shore while the boats are being overhauled, and also during sickness: according to the form of surety now issued by the Sub-Collector of Customs, form No. 15, they can be engaged in any duties ordinarily connected with the vessels. With a view to minimising the sexual intercourse between the Asiatics and aborigines at present existing, and its resultant evils, the following recommendations have been suggested:—Power to be given to the police to order the men back to their boats; reserves to be proclaimed where boats only should be allowed to land, but no aborigines to enter, and vice versa, and the chartering of a patrol boat. One witness suggests that, under proper supervision, the male natives could earn their own living by cutting wood and getting water for the boats. Your Commissioner recommends the passing of sections 22, 23, 32, 42, and 43 of the proposed Aborigines Bill, and the proclamation of certain areas, in addition to the registered ports, where only the pearling crews shall be allowed to land for wood and water and the vessels to lay up during the off season. In the N.W. district these areas are recommended to be at Ballangarra Creek, La Grange Bay, and Beagle Bay; the suggested limits and conditions applicable are to be found in the evidence given by Mr. Rodriguez, whose views, it is understood, are acceptable to many of the other pearlers. Cygnet Bay has also been proposed, but is objected to by Mr. Hadley, of the Sunday Island Mission, who states that it would be no hardship for the boats to lay up instead at Beagle Bay. With such areas and an officer of police in charge, assisted by a small patrol boat up and down the coastline, the present evils would be greatly minimised, because the pearling boats would then have to obtain wood and water by means of their own Malay crews, independently of the assistance of the natives. No sacrifice should be considered too great to ensure these races being kept apart. The maintenance of a constable at La Grange Bay should he charged to the Police and not to the Aborigines, Department. Your Commissioner further recommends an additional clause limiting the quantity of liquor allowed to be carried on any one boat to two gallons, as in the Queensland Statutes.
NATIVE POLICE SYSTEM.
Strictly speaking there are no native police, and but little system in the departmental supervision of the trackers. A few trackers have been handed over to the Commissioner of Police as prisoners, under 50 Vic., 25, sec 33, but he is not aware whether they are ever visited by Justices, as is provided, for by sec. 35 of the same Act. Otherwise, they are got “the best way we can,” generally from stations in the neighbourhood, and being engaged in their native country seldom leave it. Trackers can come and go as they please, and are permanently employed if they like to stay; when the police want one they pick out what they consider is a good boy and put him on the list, but there is no signing on. Your Commissioner recommends that these trackers be put under agreement with a minimum wage, that their duties he strictly limited to trackers and horseboys, and that on no pretext what ever should they be allowed to use firearms. It is not the business of a tracker to either arrest or be put in charge of any prisoner, white or black. A suitable uniform should be provided by the Police Department in lieu of the garments at present supplied by 4 officers in charge.
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.
Your Commissioner recommends the abolition of chains of all descriptions within the precincts of the gaols, the insecure condition of which should be remedied without delay. In English prisons, e.g., Portland, chains are used only in punishment “for the most serious offences—assaults on officers, attempts at escape, and persistent insubordination or refusal to work: the irons consist of rings for the ankles and two chains, which are linked together and fastened to a bolt; their weight varies from 6lb. to 10lb., and when a prisoner is put into them he wears them constantly, day and night, for the period of his punishment, for which the maximum is six months.” In the North-Western gaols of Western Australia chains are used on natives only because of the inadequate or faulty construction of the buildings: the irons consist of a chain round each prisoner’s neck connected by other chains by cuff, etc., to his neighbours’ necks; the weight of the neck chain, cuff, and connecting chain is as much as 5 1/4 lb., but, as the centre man has to carry the weight of the chains connecting the individuals at his side, he, of course, bears most of the strain, and double that carried by the others: he wears it constantly, often as long as three years, and sometimes more, according to the length of sentence. With a chevaux-de-frise[sic] around the central courtyard at Roebourne, and with a properly constructed galvanised iron fence around the boundaries of the prison grounds at Broome and Wyndham, the use of chains could be safely prohibited. The fence recommended by the gaolers would be from 12ft. to 14ft. high, of corrugated iron with supporting battens on the outside, and nothing in the way of barbed wire on top. When called upon to work outside the prison walls, your Commissioner recommends the abolition of neck-chains, and their substitution by:—(1) Wrist-cuffs and connecting chains, as approved by all three officers in charge of the North Western gaols, who state that the present employment of natives outside the prison wails would not be interfered with; (2) waist-belts and connecting chains; or (3) anklets joined by chain when the prisoners are required to work singally. In the last-mentioned proposal, the ankles of each prisoner are connected by a light chain, up to 20in. or 22in. long, an arrangement which allows him to walk but not to run, and, at the same time, gives full scope to the free movement of his arms and trunk. When working for municipal or local bodies, these corporations should he made to pay for the prisoners’ rations, etc., while so employed, and also for the clothes supplied to them when liberated, the latter charge at present falling upon the Aborigines Department. The hours of outside labour in these tropical climates should certainly be limited to six, an at Roebourne, and even then curtailed when the temperature is greatie than 98deg. in the shade, as is, already insisted upon according to the medical officer’s orders at Carnarvon. Wherever practicable, prisoners, when transferred, should be escorted by warders, and not by constables. Furthermore, gaolers should not be allowed, as at present, to receive instructions from the Resident Magistrates, but only from the Sheriff and Comptroller-General of Prisons.
DISTRIBUTION OF RELIEF.
The cost to the Aborigines Department of providing with rations those natives who are aged, crippled, blind, etc., as well as those women and children who are destitute, has, during the past three years, been respectively £6,621 14s., £7,238 4s 10d., and £8,289 16s. 4d. During the same periods the number of aborigines thus alleged to be benefited was 816, 833, and 984, and this is expected to show an increase in the future. The Department also supplies food relief to discharged aboriginal prisoners who, until now, have been charged for at higher rates than the other class of native. The Resident Magistrate at Wyndham, recognising the abuse to which this has led, starts each of the liberated prisoners on his journey home with two pounds of bread, independently of a police escort. In the settled districts the scale per (adult) native per week is 10lb. flour, l 1/2lb. sugar, 4lb. tea, and 5lb. meat; in the unsettled districts there is no particular scale, but a bargain is made with the distributor as to the food given for the amount allowed. Throughout the former area the amount is 6d. per head per day; in outlying districts as much as 1s., and here and there ld. or 2d more. The certification of the vouchers would not everywhere seem to be too satisfactory, one Magistrate admitting that, by request, he signs them as a matter of form. There is, apparently, no one person solely responsible for the issue of food relief in a particular district; it can be granted without the knowledge or approval of the Resident Magistrate; without the local police being consulted; while communications may pass from the Aborigines Department direct to the local distributing constable with out his superior officer being any the wiser. The distributor is a member of the police force, of the Post and Telegraph Department, some employee of the pastoralist, the owner himself, or other private individual, e.g., a working miner, a publican. So far as they constitute the responsible channels, through which rations are issued, certain of the people are objected to; the pastoralist leading a life of profligacy is a case in point. Allegations of a serious character are made concermning prostitution condoned by State and Commonwealth officials at two relieving centres. In most townships the relief is distributed through an order on the storekeeper. Rations, separately paid for by the Department, are also issued at two of the mission stations. i.e., Sunday Island and Beagle Bay; one witness objects to this expenditure at the latter institution. At Broome, for ten years past, Father Nicholas has issued relief to the sick, the indigent, and the destitute at his own expense; having nothing more to give, and being now, for the first time, in debt, he has lately appealed through your Commisioner to the Aborigines Department for assist ance, with successful results. The same people who distribute rations charged to the Governnemt, for the relief of indigent and other aborigines, benefit themselves by buying at wholesale and charging at retail current prices issuing abrout half the allowances distributing the food cooked instead of raw, or, as in the case of aboriginal pensioners, giving them native food: [?] lizards, at the cost of nothing or kangaroo at the price of a Winchester bullet. Wilth regard to any checks on the aboriginal actually receiving the [?rations] authorised, there is the certificate already referred to, and occasional police patrols of inspection. One witness, who, in some cases, is of opinion that the natives do not get the [?] authorised, explains how the constable may come round and certify in perfectly good faith, but as soon as the latter’s back is turned, points out that there is
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nothing to prevent hte distributor hunting hte natives into the bush and using the rations to his own advantage. Or, when the constable comes round to inquire into the number of blacks relieved, they may be away “in the bush.” In another case, the witness believes that the natives do not get the relief as it is intended to be given; that , instead of the full quantity of flour they get vegetable produce, eg., pumpkins, which they have helped to grow. There must be many cases where blacks who have been working on stations for years are now being supplied with rations by the Department; some pastoralists recognise their moral obligations in pensioning off such natives, but the larger number of them do not. One member of Parliament expresses the opinion that the practice of the Government allowing relief and blankets to old natives on all the North-West stations is really wrong. Furthermore, on a station are to be found healthy and able-bodied blacks working without wages who could supply their destitute relatives (rationed by the same station at Government expense) with native food, were it not that their time is occupied in their employer’s service; any expenditure out of the public funds under such conditions appears to be a premium on pauperism and is a farce. The remedy suggested is to make each contract conditional on one destitute aboriginal being rationed for every native lawfully employed, or to insist on the payment of wages with a view to the Government recouping itself for the rations disbursed. That district officers of police should be alone responsible for the distribution of relief, etc., is recommended by the Resident Magistrate, Carnarvon; this principle of making one man responsible is more or less approved by other witnesses; the method of calling for tenders in the supply of stores to be distributed is also advocated, as well as the distribution of relief in certain localities where the recipients might be collected to receive it.
Your Commissioner is satisfied, both from official and confidential sources, as to the existence of grave irregularities in the distribution of rations, and realises the difficulties in checking them. He feels assured, however, that from one half to two thirds of the present expenditure could be saved if relief were issued on the following lines:—
(a) While Government rations are primarily intended for the aged, infirm, and sick, for destitute women and children, there should be no attempt at relieving the able-bodied blacks of their responsibilies towards their aged or crippled relatives, an abuse of charity in pauper relief generally. After many years’ experience among the natives of North Queensland, where the conditions of life are very similar, your Commissioner is confident that, as a general rule, it is not in the nature of the aboriginal to neglect his older or younger relatives, much less so, in fact, than is the case with the lower-caste European.
(b) No encouragement should be given to the establishment of distributing centres in the unsettled districts, or in such other areas, e.g., La Grange Bay, where, if the blacks were forced to hunt for their native food, they would be able to do so. Rations are at present being paid for fourteen blacks at Argyle Police Station, for twelve at Turkey Creek, for twenty at Fitzroy, and for forty-one at La Grange Bay.
(c) In the more settle parts of the State the indigent blacks should, as far as practicable, be collected on to a reserve—one or two, according ot the size of the magisterial district. At Broome Father Nicholas is renting a few acres in the neighbourhood as a private reserve, and supporting therein between twenty and thirty aborigines, while, within a comparatively small circuit, the Department is paying for eight blacks at the local butcher’s, only four miles out, for seven at Thangoo, and ten at Yurdagurra. It will probably be urged by those of the distributors at present benefitting themselves thereby that the aged and infirm aborigines will not care to leave the stations and permanently reside in those localities where the executive is prepared to supply their wants. In reply to such protestations your Commissioner would recommend that in all cases of alleged refusal the relief be cancelled.
(d) On the stations no pastoralist should certainly be allowed rations for indigent blacks when at the same time he is employing able-bodied ones. Indeed, in such cases, it would be the duty of the proposed local protector to see that the permit-to-employ issued to the pastoralist was conditionl on one destitute aboriginal being supported for every native law fully employed, the amount of wages to be paid being, of course, proportionately decreased, or wholly remitted, as may be considered proper.
(e) As far as possible, the distributors of relief should be responsible persons, preferably Government officials, against whom, in case of irregularities, departmental action could be promptly and dramatically be taken. A working miner, however estimable he may be personally, should not be allowed to issue rations to 13 natives at Mosquito Creek when there is a constable stationed about thirty-miles distant at Nallagine. A publican should most certainly not be tolerated as distributor.
(f) The relief granted to the blacks being Government property, distributors making any pecuniary profit whatever through its issue come perilously near committing themselves under 50 Vic., No. 25, section 41, now incorporated in section 48 of the proposed Aboriginal Bill. Furthermore, your Commissioner recommends that this section 48 be so modified so as to include penalties for such a practice.
(g) Unless local requirements absolutely prevent such an arrangement, all relief should be paid for by voucher on the storekeeper, etc., for the goods supplied (preferably by contract), and not to the distributor at so much per head.
(h) There should be one person solely responsible for the relief issued in each magisterial district. At present there are so many different people supplying relief to the natives that no one knows how they are really supplied.
BLANKETS AND CLOTHES.
During the past three years the cost of blankets and clothes to the Department has been £698 2s., £984 3s. 8d., and £1,157 3s. 8d. respectively. Blankets are distributed to the aged, crippled and blind, and to destitute women and children. At first a difference was made in the supplies sent to the far north, but owing to the numerous appeals made by people who stated that there was really cold weather there, very little distinction is now made. With a view to checking their proper distribution, lists, which show the claim of each native, are asked for. At two distributing centres allegations are made that the articles are not applied to the purpose intended. Recently, blankets have been sent up for the use of discharged native prisioners during travel only. Clothes are also supplied for such people, but, as they are bought from the local storekeeper, at ordinary retail prices, a saving might profitably be effected. A stock could be supplied to the gaoler in the same manner as gaol clothes are, and, when issued, they could be credited to the Department.
Your Commissioner recommends that the blankets should be purchased on proper business lines, to the best advantage. He finds that up to two years ago they were contracted for through the Agent-General’s office, which meant a saving of about eighteenpence on each as compared with he prices ruling under the present arrangement of buying them in the State. More than 2,000 blankets are ordered each year.
MEDICAL FEES, ETC. Payment by the Department for the past three years has varied from £92 to £94 annually, on account of maternity cases, epidemics, injuries, and long-standing ailments. Government medical officers are bound to attend a pauper aboriginal if asked to do so by the police, though the only authority appears to be a circular dated May, 1898, and issued by the Premier, wherein it is to be considered part of the duty of resident magistrate, resident medical officers, and police officers to assist ... in providing relief to the aged, infirm, and sick ... This circular does not appear to be known to every district medical officer. Owing to the general practice of employers neglecting to enter into contracts with natives working in their service, a certain expense must necessarily be incurred by the Department in attending to the medical relief of cases which, according to the contract, it would be the duty of the employers to provide.
ABORIGINALS AND HALF-CASTES.
Women and Children.-The Chief Protector has no power to enforce the protection, care, safety, and education of unprotected aboriginal women and children, nor to send the latter to mission stations, orphanages, or reformatories. The registration of the births of either half-castes or full-bloods is a matter of difficulty, even in the settled districts. Of the many hundred half-caste children—over five hundred were enumerated in last year’s census—if these are left to their own devices under the present state of the law, their future will be one of vagabondism and harlotry. In speaking of the numerous aboriginal and half-caste children around Carnarvon, the Resident Magistrate says they will spend most of their lives in gaol or as prostitutes, if something is not done with them. He would suggest their being sent to some reformatory or mission, whether their parents wish it or not; but at present he has no power to deal with such cases. With regard to the twenty-five or thirty half-caste children around Broome, the officer in charge of police considers they should be taken right away—as long as they are left in their own district, it is impossible for anything to be done with them. At Roebourne the Sub-Inspector of Police is of opinion that such children should be removed from the blacks’ camps altogether—a shame that they should be allowed to run wild. At Marble Bar the Resident Magistrate suggests that the same means should be adopted with native waifs and strays as with white children—if they are bright and intelligent, they should be sent, at a suitable age, to reformatories or schools, and, in other cases, be apprenticed to suitable employers to learn—girls domestic duties, boys, in that part of the country, stockmen’s work. At Derby the Resident Magistrate considers these are the people that should be got at. There is a large number of absolutely worthless blacks and half-castes about who grow up to lives of prostitution and idleness, they are a perfect nuisance; if they were taken away young from their surroundings of temptation much good might be done with them. He approves of sending them to properly organised and properly supervised schools, etc. The evils antecedent to the presence of half-castes in the neighbourhood of townships, which can be more or less controlled by the police, are increased on the northern and north-western stations, where the patrols are necessarily less frequent. One station in the Fitzroy River district is credited, with from twelve to fifteen half-castes, varying from infancy to 21 and 22 years of age. Only occasionally does one hear of a pastoralist providing education to these waifs and strays. Unfortunately, it is not compulsory for the reputed father to support his half-caste children. In the North-Western districts the pastoralists have taken most of the native boys from the tribes; the blacks come in from the bush and get tobacco and food from the boys working on the stations. This leads to a lot of immorality with the women. There is no power to stop squatters, drovers, and teamsters taking these women and boys away. Women are to be seen on the roads dressed up as men. “Kombo”-ism is rife. The Resident Magistrate at Derby records how the daughter of the gin employed by his wife was taken away by a white man, to the great indignation of the blacks, who told him that a native would have been speared under similar circumstances; at present the aboriginal husband has no redress. Certain police are alleged to be guilty of intercourse with the native women, while others, as well as Commonwealth officials, are charged with abetting or condoning it. In some cases the police may take no steps to prevent defilement of the gins by the stockmen, trackers, etc., who have lent assistance in hunting them down. In the Beagle Bay, Broome, and La Grange Bay districts prostitution is due to the presence mainly of the alien pearling crews. There is nothing to prevent Europeans or Asiatics living with native women or legally marrying them. In one ease the Magistrate refused to marry a Malay, but had no objection to him living with the gin, provided she was agreeable. The only circumstances where the police can interfere is when a man is found loitering in a natives’ camp. Action can then be taken under section 65 of the Police Act. 55 Vic., No. 27.
To remedy the above
Appalling State of Affairs,
your Commissioner recommends the legislation embodied in sections 11, 35, 36, 38, 39, 44, 45, and 50 of the proposed Bill. Section 11 proposes that the Chief Protector shall he the legal guardian of every aboriginal and half-caste child until such child attains the age of 18 years. Even at the present time the certified managers of certain schools are the legal guardians of natives up to 21 years of age.
There can be no doubt that of the 500 half-caste children, many will, when the necessary legislation is provided, become a charge upon the Executive, and the question will then arise as to whether a special Government institution or one or other of the mission stations will receive them. For the Central and Southern districts there are only the Swan and New Norcia Missions and the Salvation Army Collie Home, the first and third being prohibitive as against any large number being sent there. Even there. however, the charge of one shilling per day is equal to, and in some cases less than, the cost of only feeding many an aboriginal indigent in other parts of the State, and from an economic point of view it would be wiser to make the pecuniary sacrifice—if the sacrifice is indeed imperative—rather in the interests of the half-caste infant than in those of the adult full-blood. As has already been shown, large savings can undoubtedly be made in the present distribution of food-relief, and these, supplemented by moneys received on account of natives under employment, could be utilised for the benefit of the waifs and strays.
Supply of Liquor.
The frequency with which liquor is being supplied to natives varies from its alleged absence at Onslow to the terrible drunkenness reported on the Cooglegong tinfields, than which one witness thinks there is not a worse place for drink in Australia. The consensus of opinion appears to be that it is given for purposes of immorality and prostitution. According to the Act, 44 Vict., No. 9, section 56, the prohibition of selling, supplying or giving liquor does not extend to the giving or supplying of fermented liquor by unlicensed persons to aboriginal natives in their service. As the service is not specified as being with or without contract, etc., there is nothing to prevent an individual employing a native, say, for five minutes at wood-chopping, holding his horse, etc., and giving him liquor with impunity. With regard to the law as to blacks being employed or being on the premises of a publican, one magistrate shows that as section 57 of the Police Act and its Amendment. (2 Edw. VII., No. 44. Section 6) stand at present, they are awkward, because most people who travel in this country have a native boy with them to look after the horses, etc.; if they stay at an hotel this boy must attend to his work, and thus be about the premises; but if the Act were read strictly these travellers would not be allowed to have the services of the native boys. Another magistrate points out that by the same amendment just referred to, no provision is made for any licence holder, other than a publican’s general licence holder, employing an aboriginal; this means that no provision is made to allow for the holder of a wayside house licence to employ a black, even if considered worthy of it. As a matter of practice, however, the consent, in writing, of the Chief Protector of Aborigines is first obtained on behalf of the publican, as required by the same Amending Act. Opinions vary greatly as to whether such employers should be allowed permits; amongst objectors the reasons given are that it is the means of blacks getting liquor that they otherwise would not be able to obtain, or that the native employed acts as a decoy for others. The local police are apparently not always consulted about allowing a native on the premises of a publican. The penalty for supplying liquor is a £20 fine or three months’ imprisonment, but as the fine can be reduced for a first offence, under the Justices Act of 1902, section 166, it is but little wonder that the punishment then inflicted does not cope with the evil. At Broome, for instance, for some time past the fine has been reduced, and latterly it has been only £1 and costs, and £1 including costs, but very seldom over £5. Not only do witnesses consider that the present penalties are insufficient, but recommend that even the possession of liquor by a native should be made a punishable offence. Twenty-three convictions against aborigines for drunkenness last year were reported to the Chief Protector.
PENALTIES RECOMMENDED.
Your Commissioner recommends section 47 of the Bill, enforcing minimum penalties, with an additional proviso making it penal for any aboriginal or half-caste to have liquor or opium in his possesion. Owing to the advent of the Malay crews along the coastline and the ubiquitous presence of the Chinaman, it is highly probable, judging from North Queensland experiences, that opium will sooner or later come into use amongst the natives. It should be a regulation under the Act that no permit should be granted by a local Protector for the employment of any aboriginal or half-caste at any hotel, licensed victuallers’ premises, or store where liquor is sold, without reference to the Chief Protector; the reference to set out such special circumstances as, in the opinion of the local Protector, warrant the issue of such permit. To cope with the present evil of supplying liquor on the tinfields, etc., is worse than useless with constables who are but recruits and inexperienced bush men.
FIREARMS.
The possession of firearms by natives is considered a grave danger, as very wrong and likely to lead to trouble, and should not be allowed. There is no doubt that there should be legislation to prevent it. One objector urges that exception should be made in the case of an aboriginal when working for a master to obtain game. Your Commissioner recommends an additional clause in the proposed Bill to make the possession of firearms by aborigines, as well as their sale to them, illegal.
REMOVALS.
There is nothing to prevent blacks being taken away from one district to an other without any provision being made that they shall be returned. A native has been induced to leave his woman and all, and been left stranded hundreds of miles away; another instance is that of a European taking a native woman away by force; others are cases of teamsters and drovers removing aborigines to other districts and not necessarily returning them. Your Commissioner notes that these abuses are provided for under section 12 of the proposed Bill.
DEATHS AND BURIALS.
It would not appear to be anyone’s business to notify the death of an aboriginal, whether under contract or not. At Derby, the Resident Magistrate has given instructions that in the event of a native dying without medical attendance within the limits of the townsite, a magisterial inquiry or inquest, is to be held. Matters will be rectified by section 33 of the proposed Bill, which makes it incumbent upon the employer to give the necessary notice. By 61 Vict., No. 3, section 6, bodies must be buried in a public cemetery where one has been proclaimed, it being unlawful for a burial to take place elsewhere within a radius of 10 miles. In certain districts this has resulted in the contractors insisting upon burying natives. As the charges for burial are in some cases as much as £9 this would seem a useless expenditure, all the more so when prayers are put in as part of the contract at an additional cost of 10 shillings. The aborigines would appear to he always prepared to bury their own dead, and as they do not as a general rule die from any specially infectious disease, there can be no strictly valid reason for interment in a cemetery. Your Commissioner recommends that the provisions of section 9 of the same Act be availed of, and permission obtained from the Governor-in-Council to bury blacks in a more economic manner.
CONCLUSION.
In the settled areas of those portions of the State along which his investigations have led him, your Commissoner is satisfied that the natives, generally speaking, are not subject to any actual physical cruelty. On the other hand, the wrongs and injustices taking place in these areas, and the cruelties and abuses met with in the unsettled districts cannot be longer hidden or tolerated. Fortunately they are of such a nature that they can be largely remedied by proper legislation, combined with firm departmental supervision. My earnest prayer, on the eve of my departure from Western Australia, is that the next Parliamentary session will see that the proposed Aborigines Bill of 1904, as originally introduced, supplemented with the recommendations contained in this report, will become the Aborigines Act of 1905.
AB notes:
The Perth daily newspapers published not only Roth’s findings, but printed in full almost all of the testimony given.
