688 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



of wage-earning. It is realised that the aborigine, " though ne'er 

 so tamed, so cherished and locked up, hath still a wild trick of his 

 ancestry," and that his nature demands an occasional bout of 

 freedom when the " wanderlust " drives him forth to revel in the 

 delights of the chase, or, at the proper season, to enjoy the kindly 

 fruits of the earth, lying in the sun and letting the ripe nonda 

 drop into his open mouth. He, in his turn, has learned to realise 

 that man-hunting and cattle-hunting " for the pot " are improper 

 and unprofitable recreations. 



It is not within the scope of this work to settle the " Aboriginal 

 Question," but the future of the Australian aborigines may offer 

 problems of its own to future generations. If it is really the case 

 that the aboriginal population is increasing, seeing that the reserves 

 have become preserves (as is maintained by an authority already 

 quoted), it is possible that a number of the original lords of the 

 soil may yet bear a part in the destinies of the Australian continent. 1 



Thus far I had written in 1916. A year later, events took place 

 which reopened the aboriginal and mission questions, and which, 

 incidentally, shook my confidence in the conclusions I had previously 

 reached on the subject. 



The Presbyterian Mission Station on MORNINGTON ISLAND 

 was established in 1914, when the Rev. Robert Hall, formerly 

 assistant at the Weipa Mission, was appointed Superintendent. 

 (SEE MAP N.) He was accompanied by his wife, and was assistec 

 by Mr. Walter Owen, whose wife was also resident on the island. 

 It appears that the Superintendent acts as a magistrate and is th( 

 only civil authority on the island, and that the missionaries are 

 unarmed. The native population is estimated at from 200 to 400, 

 and it is believed that the great majority had at one time or oth( 

 visited the mission : in fact, the inhabitants had nearly all taken 

 up their residence in the vicinity. A school had been established 

 and had twenty-one children on the roll. The natives were at first 

 employed in clearing the land and getting timber for the mission, 

 and took kindly enough to a little agriculture on their own account 



1 Mr. Hey, who has recently retired from the Mapoon Mission, after twenty-eight 

 years' service, assures me that the pure-blooded aboriginal race of the north is hastening 

 towards inevitable extinction. The future of the extreme north of Queensland, he 

 considers, lies with a mixed race. This startling view seems a lame and impotent con- 

 clusion, but if there is anything in it, it raises many difficult questions. For instance, 

 granting that the mixed race, under capable overseership, can carry on cultivation and 

 other industries with profit, after how many generations of dilution with white blood 

 (rarely, at least in the first generation, of the best quality) will its individual members 

 be fit to be entrusted with the franchise and other duties and responsibilities of citizen- 

 ship in a " white Australia " ? R. L. J., i6th January, 1920. 



Interviewed for the Sydney Morning Herald (yth December, 1920), the Rev. E. R. I 

 Gribble, Superintendent (1913-20) of the Forrest River Mission, Western Australia, 

 expressed views agreeing in the main with those of Mr. Hey, as far as the future of the 

 aborigines is concerned. " The remnant of the race," he avers, " is now in the north 

 of the continent, and is doomed to disappear unless steps are taken to ensure segregation, 

 and he adds that " it is better to improve their native conditions than to Europeanise 

 them." They can be uplifted, but he does not claim that they can be brought, in one 

 generation, to the level of present-day civilisation. R. L. J., gth December 1920. 



