Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/108

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94
Western Australia.

relaxation, gymnastics, games, music, dancing, &c. He considers the labor of a well-conducted farm most suitable as a means of civilization. Tailoring, shoemaking, and harness making, have been successfully taught and practised, but require too long continued and regular labor for natives generally. The young men become good agriculturists, and four reaped 190 bushels of wheat of their own in the year 1871. All labor at New Norcia is paid for at customary rates, and the property of individuals is respected. He finds that the diseases from which the natives suffer most are not so amenable to the ordinary course of medical treatment adopted by European medical men as they are in the case of the settlers, but that they more often recover under their native remedies. They suffer much from "home sickness," and occasional hunting is allowed them on this account.

Father Garrido reports that they have been found good shepherds and teamsters, and first-class stockmen, but, like Bishop Salvado, he prefers agricultural labor, as more tending to civilization; that in one year 5413 sheep were sheared at New Norcia by natives, one shearing 1421 sheep in 25 days, and earning £19s. 8½d. The girls, he says, are taught to wash, cook, and work with the needle; several couples have been married, and those living in cottages on the estate of the Monastery have adopted the habits, manners, and dress of civilized life.

Mrs. Camfield, who had charge of the school at Annesfield (Albany), reports specially on the fondness of the natives for music. One girl, sent to Sydney, played for some time the harmonium in St. Philip's Church, and gained her living by teaching; several others married civilized natives from institutions in the