464 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



at work in this, are discussed. A summary is given of the recommendations 

 presented by the writer in a memorandum to the Commonwealth Govern- 

 ment following an investigation of native affairs in Arnhem Land, Northern 

 Territory. 



The following proposals, which represent essential measures only, are 

 suggested, and aim chiefly at the removal of the major wrongs and injustices 

 confronting the aboriginal population in Australia and of endeavouring to 

 arrest immediately the increasing decline in population, pending the settled 

 policy and the establishment of a Department of Native Affairs : 



That the remnant of native tribes in Federal Territory not yet 

 disorganised or detribalised be absolutely segregated, to preserve in- 

 tact their social and pohtical institutions, their organisation and culture 

 in its entirety ; that the Native Reserve Arnhem Land be created an 

 inviolable reserve ; and that similar steps be taken to render inviolable 

 any other reserves in which the native population remains un- 

 detribahsed. That all the established watering dep6ts (within the 

 Reserve) be abolished, since the pearling vessels are manned chiefly by 

 Japanese whose presence is inimical to the welfare of the native popu- 

 lation. That the whole policy of administration of native justice be 

 revised ; the anomaly whereby Police Constables act as Protectors of 

 aboriginals be abolished, and that special courts, suitably constituted, 

 be established to deal with natives and native offences. 



An important objection to the present system of justice is that the usual 

 deterrent effects of imprisonment— the sense of shame, the loss of prestige 

 in the eyes of his fellows, and the stigma that attaches to even a nominal 

 term of imprisonment, which make it a powerful deterrent to the white 

 man — are entirely lost on the aborigine, who suffers not at all in social 

 prestige by punishment under white man's law. 



While it is not suggested that the Government be committed to a 

 permanent and unprogressive policy of segregation, it is strongly urged that 

 since the previous contacts of the aborigines with western civilisation have 

 been wholly destructive, it should be the policy to maintain these reserves 

 inviolable for the natives who are still in possession of their culture until 

 and unless a sound working policy and one in the best interests of the 

 aboriginals is established, tested, and proved by experience over a long 

 period among the natives who are already detribalised. 



The establishment of a separate Department of Native Affairs under a 

 trained director, staffed by men selected for their sympathies and quali- 

 fications for what must be regarded as a highly specialised work, is proposed, 

 with the objective of finally bringing the whole of the administration of 

 native affairs in Australia under one uniform control. 



Prof. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. — Anthropological research in Australia 

 (10.55)- 

 On the basis of scanty available data it has been estimated that the 

 aborigines originally numbered 250,000 or 300,000. At the present time 

 there are less than 60,000 and probably less than 50,000. They have thus 

 been reduced in 150 years to one-fifth. There were originally several 

 hundred tribes, each with its own language and its own social system. 

 Many of these are now extinct. Others are reduced to a mere handful in 

 which only the old people of 50 or 60 years of age retain any knowledge 

 of their language and their former customs. There are hardly any tribes 

 in which the social system is not either broken down or beginning to break 



