THE ABORIGINES AND THEIR TREATMENT 227 



in favour of the natives, who they knew would not stop there. 

 Some of the Protectors, and notably Mr. Sievewright, were very 

 injudicious in the attitude they assumed towards the surrounding 

 settlers. Not content with the confiscation of all the improvements 

 on the resumed area of their runs, they were always ready to com- 

 plain to the Government of every trumpery difference that arose 

 out of the continually simmering trouble between the shepherds 

 and the blacks. In one of these paltry investigations, it came out 

 in evidence that a native caught red-handed in some larcenous raid 

 said to the squatter who was about to chastise him: " You touch 

 me, Mr. Sievewright have you hung ! " This ridiculous incident 

 was unfortunately only too true a reflection of the general belief of 

 Mr. Sievewright's proteges, and led to great difficulty in dealing 

 with them. 



A careful perusal of the voluminous reports and Parliamentary 

 papers tends to the impression that Mr. Parker and Mr. Thomas took 

 the most reasonable view of their duties, and did their best to give 

 effect to the intentions of the Secretary of State. But even their 

 success was not measurably encouraging, as indeed, in view of 

 their ignorance and misdirection in the task entered upon, it could 

 hardly be expected to be. Mr. Sievewright, whose district certainly 

 contained the most bellicose and untameable contingent of the 

 natives, was continually in hot water, and it was there that by far 

 the largest proportion of the outrages, murders and retaliations took 

 place. 



In a memorial addressed to Sir George Gipps by thirty-eight 

 pastoral tenants of the Crown on 18th April, 1840, it is stated in 

 reference to native troubles in this particular district that " Sheep 

 are being daily stolen, driven away, and destroyed ; servants so 

 frightened as to be unfit to discharge their duties, and in many 

 cases murder has been committed. That your memorialists have 

 no protection or safeguard against the repetition of such outrages, 

 for although an Assistant Protector of aborigines has been for a 

 considerable time stationed in the district, his presence has rather 

 encouraged the native tribes in their aggressions, while he has not, 

 so far as memorialists are able to discover, rendered them any 

 service in defending their rights, or protecting them from the lower 



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