AUSTRALIA 



5 1 



The advent of the white man in Australia has brought ruin to the blackfellows, and 

 the treatment they have received at our hands can only be described as shameful. 



When Europeans first settled in Australia, the native population was probably about 

 150,000 persons. It has been rapidly diminishing ever since those days; and no wonder, 

 for the whites have taken the best of the land and destroyed much of the game on which 

 the blacks chiefly lived. Civilisation, alas! brought disease and vice in its train. Consumption, 

 measles, small-pox, have had a large share in the work of destruction. The adoption of 

 clothing, with all primitive peoples, undoubtedly induces a great deal of lung disease. This 

 may at first appear incredible, but it has been clearly proved. There is a right way and a 

 wrong way in everything; and clothing, which is a great protection if rightly used, is only 

 a source of discomfort and danger to the creature that is unaccustomed to it. The poor 

 ignorant savage does not appreciate it, and would much rather be without clothes. When he 

 does adopt clothes, he frequently casts them aside just when they might be of the greatest 

 service in protecting his body from cold. Lying down to sleep at night in a damp place 

 without the covering he has worn throughout the day, he courts the very diseases which are 

 most fatal to native races. It is just the same in New Guinea, in Polynesia, and in most of 

 the Pacific Islands, where consumption is working terrible havoc. 



In the year 1851 the 

 number of Australian Abori- 

 gines was estimated at 55,000. 

 In 1893 they were put down 

 at from 30,000 to 40,000. 

 The Government has taken 

 some steps to endeavour to 

 mitigate the grave evils in- 

 flicted on the native popula- 

 tion evils for which the 

 white people were clearly 

 responsible. But its action 

 came too late. Between the 

 years 1821 and 1842 the sum 

 of 80,000 was spent in the 

 endeavour to protect and 

 improve the condition of the 

 natives. The Society for the 

 Protection of Aborigines has 

 also been usefully engaged 

 in this work. Native schools 

 were founded in Adelaide and 

 elsewhere, and liberally sup- 

 ported. But now the Adelaide 

 tribe is extinct. 



Inferior races must of 

 course give way and make 

 room for those that are more 

 highly civilised; but it is 

 sad to think how much 

 cruelty, vice, and wickedness 

 is involved in the process. 

 When Mr. Lloyd first landed 

 in Geelong, in the year 1837, 

 the Barrabool tribe numbered 



Photo by \\'m. Ran] 



ABORIGINAL WOMAN' A.VD CHILD. 



