158 
OUR INJUSTICE 
of the natural course of events; that they are ordained 
by Providence, unavoidable, and not to be impeded. 
Let us at least ascertain how far they are chargeable 
upon ourselves. 
Without entering upon the abstract question con- 
cerning the right of one race of people to wrest from 
another their possessions, simply because they hap- 
pen to be more powerful than the original inhabi- 
tants, or because they imagine that they can, by 
their superior skill or acquirements, enable the soil 
to support a denser population, I think it will be 
conceded by every candid and right-thinking mind, 
that no one can justly take that which is not his 
own, without giving some equivalent in return, or 
deprive a people of their ordinary means of support, 
and not provide them with any other instead. Yet 
such is exactly the position we are in with regard to 
the inhabitants of Australia.* 
Without laying claim to this country by right of 
conquest, without pleading even the mockery of 
* “ The invasion of those ancient rights (of the natives) by 
survey and land appropriations of any kind, is justifiable only 
on the ground, that we should at the same time reser ve f or the 
natives an ample sufficiency for their present and future use 
and comfort, under the new style of things into which they are 
thrown ; a state in which we hope they will be led to live in 
greater comfort, on a small space, than they enjoyed before it 
occurred, on their extensive original possessions. ’’—Reply of His 
Excellency Colonel Gawler, to the gentlemen who objected to 
sections of land being appropriated for the natives, before the 
public were allowed to select. 
