Sir,—Permit me a little space in your columns to give an unqualified denial to the broad and sweeping assertion of your anonymous correspondent, "Outis," as to the character of the officers of the Native Police. As one who has served in the force, I claim the right to know more about the officers' duties and proceedings and the estimation in which they are held by the squatters and their families than "Outis" can possibly pretend to. I say, sir, that "Outis'" statement that "gentlemen" have refused to allow officers of the Native Police to enter their doors or share the generous hospitality accorded to every deserving wayfarer simply because they followed the occupation they did, is a pure invention of the writer. I have seldom met with greater kindness than I have from these same "gentlemen" in the bush.
May I ask, Mr. Editor, how has "Outis" become so minutely acquainted with those dreadful habits (as he states) of the officers when, by his own showing, a "white" man never accompanies the dispersing parties to witness and recount the horrible scenes he so lavishly describes? If "Outis" cannot write in more moderate language about what he feels to be a grievance, the sooner he hands over the pen to another the better. At present he simply insults a number of highly respectable "gentlemen" whose hands he knows full well are so tied as to be unable to reply to his venomous attacks.—Yours, &c.,
Veritas.
—Queenslander, June 12, 1880.
Sir,—My attention has been called to a letter in the Courier of Saturday last, in which an ex-black police officer, writing under the name of "Veritas," questions my veracity. He would have better merited the nom de plume which he has chosen had he been careful to quote correctly. In my letter to which he refers he quotes "Outis'" statement that "gentlemen have refused to allow officers of the Native Police to enter their doors or share the generous hospitality accorded to every deserving wayfarer simply because they followed the occupation they did." If "Veritas" will substitute the word "gentlewomen" for "gentlemen" his quotation is perfectly correct. I used the word "gentlewoman" designedly, as I thought that the hackneyed term of "lady" was not enough to convey the feeling of profound admiration I entertain for the honest womanly feeling that prompted their action. That "Veritas," who, from his own statement, has served in the black police force, should give my assertion an unqualified denial is not to be wondered at; but, sir, I assure you that my former statement is correct, and that I can name two gentlewomen in one district of the colony, well known for their kindness and hospitality, who declined to entertain officers of the black police.
"Veritas" wishes to know how I "became so minutely acquainted with those dreadful habits of the officers, when, by my own showing, a white man never accompanies the dispersing parties to witness and recount the horrible scenes." I have great pleasure in complying with the wish that "Veritas" has so distinctly expressed. In the first place I have been told of what had happened to their relations by the blacks themselves; and in the second place, I have known the black police to be "out" in a district where there was not one white man to every two or three hundred square miles. I have seen their tracks, and on their tracks I have seen the dead bodies of their victims. This may not be sufficient evidence to go into a court of law with, but no sane man could doubt who committed the murders in the case I have mentioned. Here is the picture: A lonely region, far remote from any bush highway—country unoccupied, and rarely or never traversed, save by a stockman in search of missing cattle; one well-defined trail leading down the creek, known to be the track of a sub-inspector and his troopers; signs as of horses galloping; crowds of hawks and crows circling in the air, and nearer still the sickening stench; then the dark object on the ground among the long grass, and the last lingering crow dashes up from his dainty meal on the gashed and sightless eyeballs.
Gazing on a picture such as I have described, will anyone blame me, sir, that, looking up at the warm blue sky overhead and the mirage half enveloping the red hills in the far distance, and looking at my black boy as he gazed with rolling eyes and distended nostrils at what not long before had been his kinsman, I solemnly vowed to do what I could to revolutionise our system of black police?
Sir, I do not wish to attack individuals, but the only feasible method of criminating the system at present in vogue is by giving instances to "point the moral;" or, rather, as texts upon which to preach a new doctrine of salvation for the aborigines.
In the name of our common humanity, sir, I implore you not to desist from the good work that you have so well begun. Let instance after instance of inhumanity
