PROPERTY IN LAND. 
299 
in the soil is more imaginary than real, the native grass affording 
subsistence to the kangaroos of the natives, as well as to the 
wild cattle of the Europeans, and the only difference indeed 
being, that the former are not branded with a particular mark 
like the latter, and are somewhat wilder and more difficult to 
catch. Nay, as the European regards the intrusion of any other 
white man upon the cattle-run , of which European law and 
usage have made him the possessor, and gets it punished as a 
trespass, the Aborigines of the particular tribe inhabiting a par- 
ticular district, regard the intrusion of any other tribe of Abo- 
rigines upon that district, for the purposes of kangaroo hunting, 
&c. as an intrusion, to be resisted and punished by force of arms. 
In short, this is the frequent cause of Aboriginal, as it is of 
European wars; man, in his natural state, being very much 
alike in all conditions — jealous of his rights, and exceedingly 
pugnacious. It is true, the European intruders pay no respect 
to these Aboriginal divisions of the territory, the black native 
being often hunted off his own ground, or destroyed by Euro- 
pean violence, dissipation, or disease, just as his kangaroos are 
driven off that ground by the European’s black cattle; but this 
surely does not alter the case as to the right of the Aborigines. 
“ But particular districts are not merely the property of par- 
ticular tribes; particular sections or portions of these districts 
are universally recognised by the natives as the property of 
individual members of these tribes ; and when the owner of such 
a section or portion of territory (as I ascertained was the case at 
King George’s Island) has determined on burning off the grass 
on his land, which is done for the double purpose of enabling the 
natives to take the older animals more easily, and to provide a new 
crop of sweeter grass for the rising generation of the forest, not 
only all the other individuals of his own tribe, but whole tribes 
from other districts are invited to the hunting party, and the feast 
and dance, or corrobory that ensue ; the wild animals on the 
ground being all considered the property of the owner of the land. 
I have often heard natives myself tell me, in answer to my ques- 
tions on the subject, who were the Aboriginal owners of parti- 
