a struggle with the aborigines, and wherever that is the case the shooting of blacks is inevitable. But we maintain that the struggle might be prevented in most cases, and might be diminished in all, if entered upon in a more rational and humane fashion. We assert that the unchecked license indulged in by some of the white settlers, and the systematic barbarities practised by the Native Police intensify the resistance of the blacks into a struggle of absolute despair, and that in the conflict the white man sinks to such a level that he only outshines the black savage by the greater ferocity he displays. And this conduct is as foolish as it is criminal, for the blacks speedily discover the superiority of the whites, and would, if permitted, in most cases be willing enough to submit to their occupation of the country, and careful to avoid meddling with them. But they are goaded to such a state of desperation by the promiscuous massacres perpetrated by the police, and the outrages of some of the settlers, that despair lends them the courage to continue the hopeless war, and they go on spearing cattle and clubbing solitary travellers because they find that they have nothing to hope for by abstaining from such practices. The reform to be effected would be the abandonment of the irrational method we now pursue. For the Native Police we would substitute a force composed mainly of white men, assisted by black trackers. The change is necessary, because one great cause of the atrocities committed by the force is due to the fact that the trained savages who compose it are let loose to gratify their thirst for blood and cruelty in the presence generally of only one white man, who having no European witnesses of his conduct hounds on his men, and often joins in the perpetration of their most revolting cruelties. The tone of our correspondent's letter gives an inkling of how an ordinary white man's conscience may be seared and his nature hardened by familiarity with the scenes of bloodshed in the bush. But it can give no idea of the awful depth of brutality to which even an educated European can descend when engaged in a business which keeps him mainly employed in superintending massacres perpetrated by armed savages on mobs of nearly helpless men and women, away from any control or witness, and free to obey the dictates of the worst passions of human nature. The white police, consisting, of course, of good bushmen, should be employed in country where the blacks and whites are, or are likely to be, in conflict. Their duty should be to repress any outrage by the blacks, and for that purpose they should have the same license that is accorded to any hostile force in time of war; these efforts being directed in the first place to the capture and punishment of offending individuals among the blacks, and, if that prove impossible, the punishment of the guilty tribe. But the officers in command should be compelled to report their operations, and they should rigorously abstain from touching or molesting blacks who are quiet and do not meddle with the whites; and they should be further required to protect the blacks from unnecessary molestation by the whites, and be armed, if necessary, with special powers for the purpose.
Such a force might be more expensive than the present one, but it would cost the country indirectly less, for it would speedily pacify whole districts in which constant and heavy losses are being endured by the settlers. We must leave the explanation of minuter details to another occasion, but we have said enough to indicate the broad nature of the reform we advocate. That its expense will be no bar to
