454 OPINIONS IN THE COLONIES OF ATTEMPTS 
and a variety of secondary means might be brought to bear with 
great advantage on the condition of the natives, still we must 
exercise faith in the power of the Spirit of God, over the most 
savage soul, in subduing the wicked passions and inclining the 
heart unto wisdom by exalted views of a future state, and of the 
divine character and will/’ 
Captain Grey’s opinion of the little good that 
had ever been accomplished, may be gathered from 
the following quotation, and which is fully as appli- 
cable to the state of the natives in 1844, as it was 
in 1841. Yol. ii. p. 366, he says, 
“ I wish not to assert, that the natives have been often treated 
with wanton cruelty, but I do not hesitate to say, that no real 
amelioration of their condition has been effected, and that much 
of negative evil, and indirect injury has been inflicted on them.” 
Upon the same subject, the Committee of 
Management of the Native School at Perth, Swan 
River, Western Australia, state in their 3rd Annual 
Report, dated 1844. 
<c With regard to the physical condition of the native children, 
and those who are approaching to mature life, it may be 
observed, that they are somewhat improving, though slowly, we 
trust surely. We find that to undo is a great work ; to disas- 
sociate them from their natural ideas, habits, and practices 
which are characteristic of the bush life, is a greater difficulty, 
for notwithstanding the provisions of sleeping berths in good 
rooms, also of tables, &c. for their use, and which are peculiar 
to civilised life, and with which they are associated, yet they 
naturally verge towards, and cling to aboriginal education, and 
hence to squat on the sand to eat, to sleep a night in the bush, to 
have recourse to a Byly-a-duck man for ease in sickness; these 
