CHAPTEE X. 

 THE ABORIGINES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



As the transactions of the aboriginal inhabitants of Victoria prior to 

 the arrival of the white man have no reliable records, and as their 

 proceedings since that event have had no retarding influence on the 

 progress of the colony, it may seem unnecessary to devote even a 

 brief chapter to their consideration. But the object here sought is 

 not to deal with them from the scientific standpoint of anthropology ; 

 rather to consider how far their occupation of the country was any 

 hindrance to settlement, what the Government did for their protec- 

 tion, and what was the cause of the murders and outrages that were 

 of such frequent occurrence during the first decade. 



That the subject deserves investigation in its scientific aspect is 

 forcibly insisted on by Professor Baldwin Spencer, who points out 

 that, owing to the isolation of the Australian continent, the primi- 

 tive type of mankind, the exact representatives of our own long past 

 ancestors of the Stone Age and cave dwellings, can be studied in 

 living illustrations, and with the aid of the informing light which 

 the comparatively modern science of ethnology now confers. Those 

 who desire to pursue it will find much valuable information in the 

 two substantial volumes compiled by Mr. E. Brough Smyth by 

 direction ot the Government of Victoria in 1878. These may be 

 further supplemented by the labours of Mr. B. M. Curr, whose three 

 volumes and Ethnographic Atlas were also issued authoritatively by 

 the Government printer in 1886-87. 



In the other Colonies efforts have also been made, under Parlia- 

 mentary sanction, to rescue from oblivion the traditions, habits, 

 customs and language of a type of humanity rapidly vanishing from 

 the earth. In addition to these official records, several of the early 



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