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[centred] CORRESPONDENCE.
To the Editor of the Fort Denison Times
SIR—In your issue of some short time since I saw that the squatters and bushmen of Northern Queensland are charged, in a letter signed "Australia," with inhuman treatment of the blacks. I have waited for a more able pen than mine to give him an indignant answer; having seen none, I trust you will give me the opportunity. It is evident "Australia" is one of those pious (?) men, who, when enjoying perfect immunity from danger, try to obtain sanctified notoriety by slandering the adventurous men who obtained it for him and others: that, for his motive, he takes what he hears for a guide, and jumps to the Christian-like conclusion that the Northern men are monsters of iniquity. It is not to be denied that in the first flush of outraged feelings, at some particular time, few of the blacks have perhaps been "more sinned against than sinning" indeed, but not in inclination—their lack of power alone limiting their performance. On the other hand, men knowing the blacks thoroughly are well aware that if their first depredations are not visited by death (the only punishment they comprehend, and forbearance is simply looked on by them as fear), they will gradually increase until there would be in a new country no safety for life or property; and hence in their exertions to protect themselves, the squatters of Australia may have given a slight foundation for the highly coloured episodes of "Australia's" letter. Can he expect men to nicely measure justice, when smarting under perhaps the death and dishonour of their wives; their children killed, their friends or servants butchered, and their property destroyed? If he has read any of the Northern papers in the few weeks he has been in Australia, he must have seen any or all of these calamities an outsider is daily exposed to frequently recorded of the blacks—his pet blacks!—who I can assure him, were he the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, would wish no greater fun, than to make him bristle with spears "like quills upon the fretful porcupine." No doubt he will say they are British subjects, liable to be punished by British laws—liable, ay there's the rub! To enable "Australia" to judge the difficulty of administering to Myall blacks the said British laws, let him charge a kangaroo rat with wanton destruction of vegetables, and undertake the task of recognising and apprehending the offender in a scrubby country, and he would then have some slight idea of, and sympathy with, an up- country resident's trouble with blacks. It is also plainly seen the cause on which he builds his calumnies are tales related to him by some braggart, who no doubt would glory in the deed of shooting a blackfellow; now, the arms of a white man giving him such a vast superiority, none but a coward would boast of such a thing; and is such a man worthy of belief—a truthful brave man, while obliged to accept the stern necessity, does so with repugnance and is silent. Further, for "Australia's" information, there are many more blackfellows shot in the bars and taprooms of Bowen than probably exist on the island; and many outrages committed by the blacks unknown to the public. It is childish to censure men's only way of protecting themselves, unless he is ready with some more efficient
[second column] plan to take from them the nuisance of always carrying arms, and occasionally the dire necessity of using them. Say, for instance, "Australia" might have advocated getting up a petition to Parliament to adopt the successful Tasmanian system,—of surrounding their camps, driving in all prisoners, putting them on an island, and making the elders work, and the youngsters learn something useful, or, perhaps, being more in his line, he may wish to missionary-ize them; we see in New Zealand what a vast amount of good they have done there, made confusion worse confounded. I do not think he would like an addition to his [baton?] (his style are [sic] invariably more blessed in being paid than paying) to afford more ample police protection to those who are willing and able to protect themselves as under the present system, but who would gladly hail any change that would enable two men camping out to sleep in safety, instead of as now one watching while the other sleeps. I wonder, Sir, that "Australia," not liking the proceedings through which alone he lives in security, should stay and meanly avail himself of, to him, the sin, while condemning the sinner in such strong terms, the sinners, I am sure, would be gladly spared the trouble, for it places them in the very pleasant position sometimes (were all men of "Australia's" persuasion), of being liable to be hung if they protect themselves, and most assuredly speared if they do not. I trust they will be spared for the future the one last criticism of "Australia," let him go into the bush, see and hear for himself, a short residence there would enable him to talk of the Northerners with more justice and less twaddle, he would then be able to distinguish between needless barbarous inhumanity, and necessary severity, and would [find?] them much like other men, prone to look after their own interests, but not the sanguinary wretches he at present imagines them.
Apologising for troubling, and thanking you, permit me, Mr Editor, to subscribe myself.
Sir, Your obedient Servant, TASMANIA
Gunna Warra, Dec 10th, 1866.