THE ABORIGINES AND THEIR TREATMENT 221 



business was the raising of live stock had two or three, sometimes 

 half a dozen servants as shepherds, hut-keepers, stockmen, etc., the 

 great bulk of whom were assigned servants of the Crown, tioket-of- 

 leave men, or expirees from New South Wales and Tasmania. As 

 a rule, they were debased and reckless characters, slaves to drink 

 when they could get it, prone to quarrel, and reckless of conse- 

 quences in the gratification of their lust or appetite. In the sullen 

 monotony of their animal life they risked anything for the com- 

 panionship of the native women, and being practically outside the 

 region of law, they took by bribery, by force, by murder if necessary, 

 that which they coveted. It was impossible to prevent them spend- 

 ing their wages in drink, and though they loved it for itself they 

 also found it a potent charm with which to work their will upon the 

 natives. Such being the class of men with whom the primitive 

 savage came mostly into contact, it is no wonder that he was 

 schooled hi debasing vices and dissipations, which belong neither 

 to the natural man nor to civilisation, but are a base product of the 

 subversion of the latter. 



By far the greater number of the murders and outrages which 

 occurred between 1836 and 1844 arose out of revenge for brutalities 

 towards the natives in respect of their women, and though the loss 

 of life in retaliation for these murders was considerable, and often 

 sadly disproportionate to the offence, yet it did not play so pro- 

 minent a part in extermination as some of the protectors and 

 missionaries were vehement in declaring that it did. 



The "fire-water" of the pale-faces, with its accompanying de- 

 bauchery and insidious undermining of independent action, was a 

 more potent weapon of destruction than the rifle of the exasperated 

 settler, infuriated by the ravages on his flocks, or even the weapons 

 of the native police, always glad to exercise their natural propensity 

 for killing " wild blacks " under the aegis of authority. 



While this was the case in the outlying districts, it worked with 

 even greater intensity in the near neighbourhood of populous settle- 

 ments. Mr. E. M. Curr, who is a reliable authority on the subject, 

 says: "Experience shows that a populous town will kill out the 

 tribes which live near enough to visit it daily in from two to ten 

 years, venereal disease in such cases becoming common, lung dis- 



