PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 451 



The Committee, having considered to the best of its ability the 

 difficult problem set before them, report as follows: — 



1. We are deeply convinced that the question of the protection 

 of the surviving aborigines and the amelioration of their present 

 and future condition is greater and more urgent than is generally 

 realized in Australia. According to moderate estimates, about 

 75,000 or 80,000 aborigines still survive, mostly in the northern 

 part of the Continent. Their present miserable condition and the 

 sad future which apparently awaits them, unless some radical 

 change of treatment is effected, have been set forth time after time 

 by special commissioners, protectors, magistrates, police, and 

 medical practitioners. 



2. We are also deeply convinced that the -aboriginal problem 

 will be more effectively solved when all that is left of the race is 

 made a single national responsibility, and cared for on a national 

 system. It is in this way that the Maoris have been dealt with 

 in New Zealand, and the Indians in North America. 



3. This national control might, we think, be brought about by 

 the ultimate appointment of a permanent Native Commission. 

 This Commission should consist of representatives of the Federal 

 Government and of each and all of the States of the Common- 

 wealth, and should have conferred upon it Act of Parliament all 

 general powers necessary for the exercise of the functions delegated 

 to it. 



4. The advantages of nationalizing our responsibility towards 

 the aborigines may, we think, be summarized as follows : — 



(a) For the first time in Australian history it would be 

 possible to treat the aboriginal problem as a whole, 

 and on a systematic and scientific plan. The wider 

 the area from which the governing power is derived, 

 and the larger the task set, the more statesmanlike 

 and continuous the policy is likely to be. 



(6) The financial burden would be more evenly distributed 

 over the whole of Aiistralia, and the funds available 

 would be more adequate for the purpose. In 1908, 

 Western Australia spent £23,000 on her aborigines, 

 but Victoria spent only £4,400. On the other hand, 

 Victoria spent £15 per head, whereas Western Aus- 

 tralia spent less than £1 per head, Queensland less 

 than 10s., and South Australia only 6s. 



(c) A national sentiment of sympathy and pity would be 

 created towards this unfortunate race whom we have 

 dispossessed. 



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