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IN-LETTER 4884/1901 Aboriginal Protector Nthn. Div
[Stamp] HOME SECRETARY'S OFFICE. QUEENSLAND 04884 22.MAR.1901
[Stamp] * NORTHERN PROTECTOR * OF ABORIGINALS
1901 QUEENSLAND
REPORT OF THE NORTHERN PROTECTOR OF ABORIGINALS FOR 1900 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command
TO THE UNDER-SECRETARY, HOME SECRETARY'S DEPARTMENT.
[Stamp] B.E. 30. 3 1901 No 3559 [...]
Office of the Northen Protector
Cooktown Ist January 1901
Sir, -- In accordance with the wishes of the Minister, I have the honour to hand you my annual Report on the results of the operation of the Aboriginal's Protection &c ACT of 1897, for the year ending Dec. 31st 1900. Hitherto it has been my practice to complete this up to the end of each 30th June - the termination of the financial year - but it is now intended that my Reports shall be in harmony, so far as dates are concerned, with those referring to other Departments under the control of the Home Secretary. Nominally therefore an Annual Report, this really deals with my work only for the past six months.
Permits and Agreements. In my last Report I expressed myself as strongly adverse to any Chinese or other coloured aliens employing aboriginals, especially when the blacks can obtain equally good employment elsewhere, but that, on the racial account only, I could not conscientiously refuse any such respectable and law-abiding citizens the right to work them. That many such reputable ones are to be met with, goes without saying. For instance, in the Mackay Sub-Dristrict [sic], the local Protector (Sub-Inspector Martin) reports as follows: - "My experience here is that the Chinese farmers who employ aboriginals treat them very much better than most of the white people who employ them. The Chinese offer better wages and, what is more, pay the aboriginals their wages when due: they also house and feed --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [there is a handwritten text at the top, across the page and on the left side]
aboriginal Protectors[?]
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them well." On the other hand, the Europeans have only themselves sometimes to blame for this condition of things-aliens being allowed to employ blacks. Atherton forms a case in point. Here there are some 250 aboriginals occupying from time immemorial some 64 square miles of rich scrub, which is full of native food, both animal and vegetable. Unfortunately- for the autochthonous population - this land is rapidly being felled and cleared, and the blacks have accordingly to travel further and further afield to find it. There are upwards of 230 Chinese employed by, or renting land from, over 70 out of the 76 European selectors, with the result that the blacks are, necessarily, mostly employed by Asiatics. If only to prevent the able-bodied aboriginals from starving-these rich lands being now all of them taken up, and most of them fenced-I cannot instruct the local Protector to prevent Chinese employing them (as was urged by the Atherton Progress Association some two and a half year ago). At the same time I have given orders that blacks are not to be allowed to work for any coloured alien once convicted of supplying opium.
Length of service. With regard to the length of service on the boats, the Protectors at Cairns and Cooktown do not permit aborginals, to be signed on articles for periods longer than six months, an arrangement similar to that at Thursday Island. Any longer continuous service is as a rule too much to be expected from the blacks-this applies to those engaged on land equally well as to those employed on boats.
Removals. That the natives are being removed from one district to another, without the necessary bonds being entered into for their return, is proved by the fact that during the past twelve month, only 13 such recognizances have been forwarded me from the whole of the Northern Districts, -i.e. from 1st. 22 up. I also had personal proof of this breach of the Act in the Cardwell and Herberton Petty-Sessions Districts during my visit of inspection there last September and October. As the non-return
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of aboriginals to their native country, on expiry of their term of service, constitutes a very grave abuse, I have impressed upon Protectors the necessity for seeing that this particular provision of the Act is rigidly enforced. Where blacks actually wish to remain away from out of their own native districtsand the employers all that is desirable-the Minister has approved of my action in instructing that the Bonds can be renewed from year to year, so that ultimately the return passage money will be forthcoming:-an expense which otherwise would fall upon the State.
Certificates of Exemption. Several applications have been received from employers for the grant of Certificates of Exemption from the provisions of the Act (under Sect. 33) to certain half-castes. It is noteworthy that these have invariably been made on behalf of little girls. My own interpretation of such certificates is that they should be issued only to those halfcastes old enough and mentally able to appreciate them: furthermore, it must be remembered that when once granted, there is no power given to revoke such documents. Supposing for one moment that a certificate were given to such a child, she would really be worse off than before: she would be denied the protection which the Act affords, and not being able to look after her own interests, her condition would be nothing else than one of slavery.
Wages. I am satisfied that the blacks do not, as a rule, receive the wages-small enough as they are - which they are justly entitled to under their agreements. With the amending Act however, which I believe the Home Secretary proposes bringing forward this Session, the Protectors will have power to check this and other abuses.
I note that the public continue to apply to the Police to recruit black labour for them: steps are being taken to stop this practice.
Female aboriginal labour. Women, and children under puberty, are
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still forbidden to be carried on the boats. A young half-caste child "Willie" was found by Protector Bennett on one of the vessels: being too young for swimming diving, he was taken away and put into my charge.
The grant of food and other relief. With regard to the grant of food and other relief, I have been made responsible for its adquate supply and distribution at the different centres, all vouchers being now certified to by me. In the matter of distribution, I have to record the valuable assistance rendered by the Police, and by the Officers in charge of Telegraph Stations in the Peninsula, in seeing that the relief reaches the proper individuals i.e. those aboriginals who, owing to extreme age, or youth, infirmity, disease, and other good causes, are precluded from obtaining food for themselves. It is true that occasionally some of the Government rations are subsequently partaken of by able-bodied adult blacks, who refuse to work for Europeans: but this can hardly be invariably prevented. Amongst the general public there seems to be a good deal of misconception in regard to this relief. The Government does not for one moment intend feeding the whole native population in the north, which I estimate at not less than 25,000. Where at any given centreand they were not a few - it was found that the relief supplied all the aboriginals' wants, the fact came into prominence that such a distribution was only acting in the way of pauperisation, with the sure result that the Government would be compelled to make the temporary relief a permanent charge. The old ones had no incentive to hunt for their native foods, while the young ones, as they got older, had no ambition or pressure brought upon them either to obtain it for themselves, or to seek employment among the settlers who would willingly give them work. In my opinion it was therefore far preferable that the rations supplied by Government should prove less sufficient than ample, and I have accordingly gradually decreased the allowance in those localities where there still remains an abundance of
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native foods. At one centre I found that sugar and tea, as well as beef and flour, were being regularly supplied, and so far as the first-mentioned article was concerned, could quite understand that the able-bodied blacks had got too lazy to hunt for honey. Except therefore in cases coming under medical treatment, beef and flour are the only articles now allowed. While these reductions will thus prove of no hardship to the aboriginals themselves, the settlers in certain districts will no longer have cause for the complaint that, owing to the issue of Government relief, the blacks refuse to work for them.
Government relief has now been cancelled at Ayr, Cardwell, the Daintree, and at Bowen, where the local Sergeant expressed himself of the opinion that it was simply a wase of money. In the Cairns District large reductions have been made. On the other hand, for the relief of the aboriginals - some 170 in number - excluded from Cooktown, 17£ monthly has been specially provided.
Exclusive of individual cases, here and there, of special distress, sickness, &c, the following table shows the regular monthly expenditure of Food Relief:– there are a few cases where, instead of, or in addition to, food, the blacks are given tobacco, tomahawks & &c for purposes of conciliation and of friendship. The last column represents the largest number of aboriginals benefitted on any one particular occasion. The local Protector Mr. Alex. Gordon, is responsible for the expenditure at Camooweal. The blacks who are being continuously relieved at Hampden and Cloncurry, are prevented obtaining food for themselves owing to disease and infirmity.