QSA17980 1900 Report of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals for 1900, Correspondence and papers relating to "The Queensland Aborigines", Home Secretarys Department In Letters, DR58321

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This same boy seems to have had an unfortunate experience with a previous employer who marooned him about a year before. Of course my appointment as an Inspector under the Pearling & Beche-de-mer Fisheries Act, and the use of the patrol cutterthe "Melbidir" - will enable me to deal with, and to check, some of the present abuses.

The supply of liquor to aboriginals. At Cooktown, as a result of keeping the blacks, other than those under agreement, out of the township, and refusing (with one particular exception for which there was good reason) to allow any publicans to employ aboriginals, the scandal referred to in my last report has now been satisfactorily put a stop to: there has not been a single conviction reported to me from here during the past six months for drunkenness on the part of a native. At Herberton the local Protector has received instructions not to grant permits to any hotel-keepers to employ blacks. As Inspector Medrum states, "the opportunities afforded to aboriginals who are employed by licensed victuallers and aliens to obtain liquor and opium are too great and require to be checked. It will be necessary however....to treat each case separately, and deal with it on its merits. I am aware that there are many respectable hotelkeepers who are sincerely desirous of dealing justly and humanely with aboriginals, but there are others, I am sorry to say, who are ready to supply them with liquor if they have got the money to pay for it." In many cases grog is supplied by employers &c more through thoughtlessness than anything else. I have noticed for instance that Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, and other similar anniversaries and public holidays, are occasions when aboriginals especially appear to get supplied with liquor: but because on these occasions certain whites then choose to indulge in excesses, that is no reason for the blacks to be afforded the opportunity of following their example.

The sub-joined convictions have been brought under my notice during the past six months, for supplying liquor to natives:-

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Date	Name	Locality	Verdict
4.7.00	Pleeson (Cingalese)	Ch. Towers	£10 and £1.4.6. costs or 3 mos. (P)
24.7.00	A. McGregor	"	£20 or 3 mos. (P)
3.8.00	Cassim	Ayr	£20 or 6 mos. (I)
19.10.00	Rob Laing	Ingham	£10 and £1.1.0 costs or 2 mos. (P)
12.12.00	F. Entricken	Hampden	5s. and 3s 6d. costs

The following blacks were convicted of drunkenness:-

Date	Name	Locality	Verdict
11.8.00	Jimmy	Croydon	conv. but not punished
22.9.00	Jack	"	discharged
12.12.00	Nimms	Camooweal	disch. with a caution

The supply of Opium to aboriginals. I regret to state that the supply of opium to aboriginals continues apparently with unabated vigour, in spite of the vigilance of the authorities, and the increasing severity of the fines inflicted. Though, as has been freely expressed, the methods adopted by the Police in proving their cases to secure a conviction is not quite compatible with a sense of British justice, such action on their part is necessitated by the circumstances of the case. The police have to cope with the ever-increasing smartness of the Asiatics (the main supplyers [sic]): in one particular district, where the local constable found it practically impossible to circumvent the Celestials by means of aboriginal boys with money, he employed a gin, without the usual shilling, and she has proved eminently successful in securing a conviction. So long as the evil exists, such and similar procedures must be resorted to. I look upon the Opium-habit as a cancrous sore slowly but surely eating its way into the bosom of the community - a danger fatal alike to the black and to the white: I cannot close my thought to the belief that many europeans [sic] must soon be succumbing to its influence. The local Protector at Mackay (Sub-Inspector Martin) tells me it would be almost impossible to stop the supplying of the drug in his Sub-District: "most of the aboriginals are opium-smokers and will not work without it. I have good reason to believe that most of the settlers keep it for the purpose of getting work out of the blacks." According to the ex-

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[ex]perience of the Protector at Townsville (Inspector Meldrum) the supply of Opium to aboriginals is confined prinicipally to Chinese gardeners and small store-keepers who require to be strictly watched. Warden Haldane, in his Report (1899) to the Under-Secretary for Mines, speaks of the Atherton Chinese as follows. "These Asiatics are ...located on the rich scrub land around Atherton, paying the selectors as much rent per annum as the original cost of the purchase of the land from the Crown. The result is the formation on these selections of Chinese camps, which are anything but conducive to the health and morals of the European residents and certain destruction in the near future of the once-robust native population, by their supplying opium and other abominations among them. One of the most repulsive cases of Leprosy that I have seen came from these camps and very recently a deliberate murder was committed on the main road on one of their own country-men. Fines have been inflicted on these Asiatics in the aggregate amounting to £80, and, in second offences, peremptory imprisonment for 6 months, for supplying opium to the aboriginal population:- but with little or no effect other than to cause them to use more caution in carrying on the traffic, such as leaving a pipe with opium at a stump in the scrub for the aboriginals to visit at their leisure, thereby incurring no risk of prosecution." I have had to draw your attention of the head of my Department to the suspicion attaching to certain mail-contractors in the North carrying opium for aboriginals.

The following is a list recording the convictions for breach of Sect. 21 of the Act, i.e. unlawfully supplying blacks with opium:-

Date	Name	Locality	Verdict
4.7.00	Charley Ah Lam	Croydon	£20, or 3 mos.
4.7.00	Ah Sue	"	"
16.7.00	Ah Way	Ayr	£20, and £3.16s costs, or 6 mos. (I)
"	Ah Chong	"	£20, and £3.6d. costs, or 6 mos. (I)
	Ah Yet	"	Summons disobeyed: warrants issued for their arrest
	Ah Sam	"	"
	Ah Young	"	"
26.7.00	Mow Quay	A.	£20, and 4s.6d. costs, or 6 mos. (I)
"	Ah Hoey	"	"

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Date	Name	Locality	Verdict
31.7.00	Ah Way	Thornboro'	£19 and 9s.6d costs or 3 mos.
2.8.00	Ah Wong	Barron Riv.	£8.2s.6d.
20.8.00	Charlie Ah Tie	Normanton	£20 and £2.12s.costs or 3 mos. (I)
21.8.00	Ah Long	Croydon	£20 and £1.1s.costs or 3 mos. (I)
24.8.00	Ye Yek (AAh Sing)	Mackay	£5 and 17s.costs or 3 mos. (P)
"	Ah Qua	"	Disobeyed summons:warran issued
4.9.00	Wah Lu	Walkerton	£2 and £1.2s.3d.costs or 1 mo.
20.9.00	Ah Luey	Percyville	£20 or 2 mos. (P)
29.9.00	Ah Sing	Cooktown	£10 and costs or 6 wks (I)
"	Ah Sam	"	"
"	Mollimon	"	"
29.9.00	Sam Yin	Atherton	£23.2s.6d
"	Ah Yen	Cairns Rd	"
16.11.00	Jimmy Ah Kong	Mackay	£2, costs 9s.d or 1 mo. (P)
"	Jimmy (Ah Sam)	"	£2, costs 10s.3d. or 1 mo (P)
19.11.00	Ah Ki	Cairns	£20, costs 17s.4d. or 3 mos
21.11.00	Ah Quey	Ingham	£10, costs 18s.10d. or 2 mo
26.11.00	Ah Sam	Herberton	Disobeyed summons:warran issued
-.12.00	Ju See You	Thornboro'	£20, costs 9s.6d. or 3 mos (P)
20.12.00	Lum Foo	Bowen	£5, costs £1.12s.6d or 3 mos. (P)

For the unlawful possession of opium, three convictions have been reported to me:-

Date	Name	Locality	Verdict
14.8.00	J. Appoo	Hughenden	£20, or 2 mos. (I)
4.11.00	Johnny (Chinese) Nebo	£10, or 3 mos. (P)
19.11.00	Oscar Fawcett	Bowen	£1, or 48 hours

Mission Stations: Mission Reserves. From the mothly returns regularly forwarded me during the past six months, I have been able to arrive at the approximate average number of aboriginals who are daily taught, fed, clothed, or otherwise relieved at the various Mission Stations. This is shown in the acccompanying table, wherein the Government subsidy already granted is given, as well as the particularisation of the Permanents, P, from the Casuals, C: the former are the blacks who permanently reside on the station, the latter those who only occasionally visit it. That some re-adjustment of the Government grant is necessary - so as to bear an equable ratio with the number of blacks benefitted - becomes apparent: this is a matter for the kindly consideration of the Minister. With regard to Weipa, the following remarks were attached to Rev. E. Brown's December Report: "Though our grant is as above, which is £200 per annum, this unfortunately is not by any means at my disposal for rations. In the first place £50 p.a. has to be deducted to meet the ration debt on the two first years of our work here, and then it

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will cost £50 or more for the year for freight on the rations from Thursday Island." He was informed that the Government allowance should be applied towards liquidation of current expenditure on the blacks, and some other means of paying off the old debt should have been devised. &c.

	Weipa	Mapoon	Yarrabah	MariYamba	C. Bedford
Amount of Subsidy	£200	£200	£120	£120	£100
	P. C.	P. C.	P. C.	P. C.	P. C.
July	14 14	52 14	112 23	20 1	39 17
August	7 12	56 15	115 23	23 1	38 18
September	39 34	53 12	122 22	23 0	38 18
October	39 59	53 18	124 23	22 1	38 26
November	?25 44	not yet received	129 23	20 0	38 26
December	26 34	"	134 28	22 1	38 26
Daily Average	58	68	146	22	59

All Mission Stations have been instructed to forward returns regularly concerning any deaths occurring amongst the inmates, together with any further particulars as will ensure suitable identification of the deceased.

I am very anxious to see the intermediate portion of coastline between Weipa and Mappon Mission Reserves joined with one or other of them.

Other Reserves. In my last annual report I had the honour of drawing your attention to the necessity of resuming more land in the north for the benefit of the native, especially while there is yet time and the pecuniary sacrifice so small. I showed how that the Government up to date were receiving but a total of £102.8s. in rentals from the whole of the Peninsula, i.e. practically all the country north of 15 deg[rees], lat[itude]. and west of 144 deg[rees] long[itude]. In some cases land was found to be occupied but not paid for. Not only is such resumption, in my opinion, imperative on humanitarian grounds, but also on grounds of practical policy. If the blacks continue to be dispossessed of their huntinggrounds and sources of water-supply by their lands being rented for grazing rights at a nominal figure - lands from which the lessees naturally desire to drive them - bloodshed and retribu-