those who are termed "the original occupants of the soil," "the natural inhabitants," &c. For something over two years I have lived in a district where the misdeeds of the blacks have been more frequent than in any other part of Queensland, and have known in many instances a swift and terrible retribution to have followed upon the offending parties. I have never known the innocent to suffer, in the Cook district, for the guilty; for the Native Police officers know their work too well not to be able to run down those upon whose heads punishment should certainly fall. But with all this, and notwithstanding the high social character of almost every Native Police officer I have met, my own observation has convinced me that the organisation of the Native Police force is wrong in its very foundation. The blacks are dispersed after doing a wrong, but they are taught no lesson; and I have known blacks spear cattle on the McIvor River, receive summary chastisement, have some of the finest members of the tribe "wiped out," and return to the self-same place to spear more cattle within a fortnight. The survival of the fittest is not generally accepted practically, nor should it, I think, be enforced as far as the blacks of this colony are concerned. "Maori," an able writer, in a private letter, says:—"As far as the treatment of the blacks is concerned, I do honestly believe it has been inhuman and a mistake. Surely the genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, that has solved so many more knotty problems than this with superior races—more truculent, more intelligent, and more powerful—could have hit on some expedient more in accordance with civilisation (I will not say even Christianity) that the barbarous method of extermination—'wiping out' as you call it. . . . . In fact, I think it a gross shame to shoot the innocent and guilty indiscriminately, as has often been done. There has been lust, rapine, treachery, bad faith, cruelty, and downright savagery just as often on our side as on the side of the blacks, and we have had the advantage of superior numbers, wealth, intelligence, arms, and organisation." These are the words of no drawing-room moralist, nor are they the expressions of a man unused to the dangers and trials of pioneering and bush work, but of one who knows what the dark-skinned inhabitants of Queensland and other countries are from pretty dearly bought experience. In the Cook district the blacks have but one spot where they can find comparative peace and means of living in their natural condition, and that is on Cape Bedford, near Cooktown, and between that place and Cape Flattery. Their roving habits, however, take them on to the Endeavor and McIvor rivers, and there they despoil the herds of the settlers, and are followed back to the coast by the police, and pay a penalty for their crimes in the shape of death. There are many Native
Police officers whose natures revolt in a measure from their work. It is no secret in the outlying Northern districts that the blacks are shot down, though the officers are said to work with ropes round their necks. This seems singularly paradoxical, for the Government serve out thousands of rounds of ball cartridge every year to the troopers. I am no advocate for the "poor blacks" in any sense other than that by a reformed method of dealing with them we shall ameliorate their condition, and remove what is certainly a blot on the fair name of Queensland.—Yours, &c.,
Townsville, August 20.Spencer Browne.
—Queenslander, Sept. 11, 1880.
