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WRONGS OF 
impossible to take them ; and in my opinion , the 
only plan to bring them to a fit and proper state is 
to insist on the gentlemen in the country to protect 
their property, and to deal with such useless savages 
on the spot” 
Captain Grey bears testimony to similar feelings 
and occurrences in Western Australia. In speaking 
of capturing some natives, he says, vol. 2. p. 351. 
“It was necessary that I should proceed with great 
caution, in order not to alarm the guilty parties 
when they saw us approaching, in which case, I 
should have had no chance of apprehending them, 
and I did not intend to adopt the popular system of 
shooting them when they ran away.” And again, at 
page 356, he says, 44 It was better that I, an im- 
partial person, should see that they were properly 
punished for theft, than that the Europeans should 
fire indiscriminately upon them, as had lately been 
done, in another quarter.” 
Even in South Australia, where the Colonists 
have generally been more concentrated, and where 
it might naturally be supposed there would be less 
likelihood of offenders of this kind escaping detec- 
tion and punishment, there are not wanting instances 
of unnecessary and unprovoked, and sometimes of 
wanton injury upon the natives. In almost all 
cases of this description, it is quite impracticable from 
the inadmissibility of native evidence, or from some 
other circumstances, to bring home conviction to the 
