for pay and food. A white trooper would not serve under £122 per annum, besides 3s. per diem sustenance allowance, and 2s. per night, night allowance, when on actual duty. The duties of such a force would be far more arduous than those of the ordinary police. and yet the above rate of pay is that at present in vogue. Then of course the horses and accoutrements have to be considered. The present Native Police of 200 men costs the Government about 10,000 per annum, and we have to consider whether for treble this sum an equal number of white troopers would do the duty as well. If not, the expenditure would be unjustifiable. What I am assured would tend more to the pacification of our blacks is—the reduction in size of the Native Police districts; the increase of detachments; constant regular patrols and communication with the blacks, so as to learn to know at least the leading men of each tribe, who would be made responsible for the good conduct of their mob; and the appointment of officers of unexceptionable character and ability, instead of young inexperienced new chums, mere boys, who have no recommendation except an unusual amount of bounce and the influence of an M.L.A. at their back. These officers should be vested with the power necessary to put a stop to the wholesale interference at present practised by the public, who take gins and children from the tribes at will, and unchecked. The enactment of a law such as the Queenslander advocates would be very necessary and of the utmost importance. No white man should be permitted to cohabit with a gin, as is at present the case, unless he marries her. It is an everyday occurrence in the North to meet travellers and teams accompanied by a gin; even these men, in most cases, endeavoring to hide their degradation by dressing their sable Hebes in men's clothes and and passing them off as boys. Such men have done more to foster the enmity between the races than any amount of patrolling. I have sketched here what I consider would be an improvement on the present system, being far cheaper than the substitution of white men; but one item should not be omitted in any scheme which may be eventually adopted: The force must be separated from the ordinary police, with which it has nothing in common. The custom in vogue at present of making constables act as camp keepers is open to serious objection, and I strongly recommend that cadets be substituted, who would thus gain experience in all that appertains to the blacks. There would never under such a system be any dearth of good officers. I would also encourage every attempt to collect information and materials from which a standard work of reference could be compiled. We know very little about the blacks, and that little is exceedingly fragmentary and based mostly on carelessly collected facts. The blacks will have disappeared from this continent before another century has come and gone. Their habits and customs are constantly changing or falling into disuse, since they came into contact with the whites; it therefore behoves us to obtain properly authenticated facts relating to everything connected with their past history. No one can be more fortunately situated for such work than Native Police officers, and the Queensland Government would confer a lasting boon on the present and future generations of this country if they would sanction and foster any research tending to the fulfilment of so valuable an object. Our national Museum would soon be enriched by a vast and valuable collection, as varied as unique, illustrating the successive stages through which the aborigines have passed since our advent, enabling the student to arrive at definite conclusions, by comparison and classification. I have for eight years devoted all my spare time to such subjects, but was forbidden to publish any information which could give the public even the slightest glimpse into the doings of the Native Police. Why such a course should be adopted is inexplicable, and certainly does not reflect credit on those who were its initiators. I may refer your readers, en passant, to a graphically described patrol which appears in Mr. Brough Smyth's work on the aborigines of Victoria, vol. ii., pp. 336-339. Here we find that as far back as 1844-45 the blacks in the Port Macquarie district bad to be terrorised into submission by a free use of the musket, the officer commanding, Mr. D—, chief constable actually cutting off the tips of the ears as trophies, and bringing them in stowed carefully in his waistcoat pockets! There is unfortunately too much evidence in proof of the violence of black and white, and there cannot be any necessity for such ridiculous assertions as those made by Captain Pascoe. The aborigines of our north-east coast knew nothing of firearms, even in 1873, when they attacked Sub-inspector Johnstone at Trinity Bay. They repeatedly endeavored to make the slain stand upright, not understanding the cause of death. To them the invisible means of such bloodshed must have been bewildering, and had they had any remembrance of the deeds described by Captain Pascoe they would certainly not have fought, when left entirely unmolested. Kennedy, like Mr. Jack, fell a victim to his own misplaced leniency. When in cases like the above the blacks become aggressive, gentlemen entrusted with Government expedi-
