MISSIONARY EXPLORATIONS 687 



in the past a most difficult duty, and their officers have borne a 

 heavy burden of responsibility. In the carrying out of that duty 

 under most adverse conditions, many of them lost their lives, some 

 have been severely wounded, and others have spent a lifetime of 

 hardship in protecting life and property and in honestly carrying 

 out, on the very outskirts of civilisation, the responsible work 

 thrust upon them. Let the outside squatter, the pioneer and the 

 prospector, whose evidence is really of value, testify." 



His recommendations included the creation of Native Reserves 

 and a reorganisation of the Native Police Force, with the distinct 

 substitution of a policy of understanding for that of dispersal. 



In 1896-7, when Parry-Okeden visited the Peninsula, the 

 northmost camp of the Native Police was on Clayhole Creek, a 

 tributary of the Batavia River (lat. 13 5' S., long. 142 53' E. 

 See Queensland 4-mile Map, Sheet 2oC.) A POLICE RESERVE, of 

 840 square miles, further north, was gazetted in 1904. This 

 reserve is practically a triangle, with its southern base running along 

 the parallel of 12 30' S. lat. and thus including a long reach of the 

 Batavia River, and its northern apex on the Telegraph line in 

 lat. 12 2' S., its north-north-east side being the Telegraph line and 

 its north-western side marching with the Mapoon Mission RESERVE 

 FOR THE ABORIGINES. (See Queensland 4-mile Map, Sheet 2iA.) 



The importance of the " Aboriginal Question " may be inferred 

 from the number of the native inhabitants. In 1896, Meston esti- 

 mated the number of the aboriginals north of the I7th parallel at 

 20,000. I was under the impression that this was an over-estimate, 

 but the Rev. John Jones, Secretary of the Church of England Board 

 of Missions, with whom I have discussed the subject, considers it 

 under the mark, at least at the present day, basing his opinion on 

 the ground that the Mitchell district alone, in which the mission 

 operates, has an estimated population of 5,000. In all probability 

 the Mapoon Mission district has at least as many, and then there 

 is a considerable outside population to be accounted for. To my 

 inquiry if the numbers were decreasing, Mr. Jones replied that, 

 on the contrary, he believed they were on the increase, in conse- 

 quence of the removal of certain factors which formerly acted as 

 checks on increase, such as tribal warfare, infanticide, the restriction 

 of marriage to the old men, and so forth. 



I see no reason to doubt that in late years the police and the 

 missionaries have done good work in the interests of the native 

 population. At all events, we rarely read nowadays of depredations 

 and murders by the blacks. On the missions they have learned 

 that starvation need not be feared, as food can always be obtained 

 in return for a certain amount of work. They are instructed in 

 some light work, such as agriculture, the care of cattle and domestic 

 duties. It is not considered wise to confine them too rigorously 

 to what a modern school of philosophy stigmatises as the slavery 



