of the stain which attaches to us. We shall recur to this subject, and indicate what in our opinion that alternative ought to be.—Queenslander, May 1, 1880.
WHITE AND BLACK.
Reverting to the subject of the treatment of native blacks by outside settlers and the Native Police, we propose now to indicate the manner in which a reform could be effected. Before doing so, however, we must notice the letter of a correspondent who, under the signature of "Never Never," writes to justify the conduct of the whites. The letter is valuable, because the writer, putting his thoughts on paper, in a frank spirit, proves the accuracy of the description we gave of the attitude assumed by the whites towards the blacks. We compared the spirit in which they acted to that which animates men in dealing with the brute creation. Our correspondent, quite unconsciously, illustrates our meaning when he says of the natives, "And being a useless race, what does it matter what they suffer any more than the distinguished philanthropist who writes in this behalf cares for the wounded half-dead pigeon he tortures at his shooting matches." It never seems to strike him, any more than it apparently strikes hundreds of men accustomed to deal with blacks, that the fact that they are men and women and not pigeons should influence their conduct. And this extraordinary obtuseness of the moral sense is fostered by the employment of a force like the Native Police, which is used to hunt down these human beings as if they were dingoes. The bushman who shoots a blackfellow to try the range of his rifle—as was done by members of the early exploring parties who searched Trinity Bay for a road to the Hodgkinson—has little remorse for doing that which the Government maintains and pays a force to do. No wonder our correspondent complains of our "vilification" of the outside settlers when we apply the term murder to such an act as is described above. We recognise the wonderful effect of custom on the moral sense, and we no more expect a bushman, accustomed to "dispersals," to understand the feeling with which the deed is regarded by most civilised men than we look for an expression of' pity from a terrier engaged in torturing a wounded rat. Such men have lost the great lesson of civilisation which teaches us that there is some other law than that of brute force, and that the weakness of any race of our fellow-men does not justify us in dealing with them as the mere caprice of the moment dictates.
However, these generalisations are only useful in so far as they serve to point out to the great bulk of the Queensland colonists the real nature of the system which they, through their Legislature, sanction and uphold. They have not descended to the moral level exemplified in the letter from which we quote, and we have little fear that we shall fail in enlisting their sympathies when we convince them of the reality of the evils which we desire to check. We cannot of course argue first principles over again, and we shall assume that murder, rape, and robbery are crimes whether the victims be black or white. And, that being understood, we must explain further that we entertain no such preposterous idea as that the settlement of the colony is an evil deed which ought to be undone. Nor do we wish to be understood as objecting to the slaying of blacks in defence of the lives or property of settlers. We acknowledge that in many cases the occupation of a tract of country by the white cannot be effected except at the cost of
