A GLANCE AT THE ABORIGINES. 



*75 



Victorian aborigines were first tried. But civilisation dulls the instinct. 

 Trackers were obtained from the far north, who did their work well. The 

 criminals were surprised and brought to bay. Three were killed in the 

 conflict, and the leader, who was captured severely wounded, was hanged in 

 Melbourne Gaol. It was acknowledged on all hands that the presence of 

 the trackers paralysed the gang, and a few blacks have been kept about 

 Melbourne ever since. 



So soon as the black has been dispossessed, and has ceased to be danger- 

 ous, the heart of the white man relents towards him, and he proceeds to look 



A Native Tracker. 



after the remnants of the tribes. Philanthropists, lay and clerical, find liberal 

 support from the state and from individuals. Thus Government stations 

 and mission stations are called into existence in Victoria, in South Australia, 

 in New South Wales, and in Western Australia, where the blacks have 

 homes provided for them and food, and where strenuous efforts are made to 

 improve their morals and to Christianise them. They are taught to grow 

 hops and to look after cattle and to repair their fences, but it is all essential 

 that reserves and streams should be at hand in which they can hunt and 

 wander. Under these favourable circumstances the full-blooded black is 

 dying out ; and, as there is a movement to distribute all half-castes amongst 



