492 STATE OF THE LAW RELATIVE 
In carrying into effect the above or any other 
regulations which might be found necessary for the 
welfare and improvement of the children. I be- 
lieve that a sufficient degree of influence would be 
acquired over the parents by the system of supply- 
ing them with food, which I have recommended to 
induce a cheerful consent, but it would be only pru- 
dent to have a legislative enactment on the subject, 
that by placing the school-children under the guard- 
ianship of the protectors, they might be protected 
from the influence or power of their relatives ; after 
these had once fully consented to their being sent 
to school to be educated.* 
There is yet another point to be considered with 
respect to the Aborigines, and upon the equitable 
adjustment of which hinges all our relations with 
* “ The best chance of preserving the unfortunate race of New 
Holland lies in the means employed for training their children : 
the education given to such children should consist in a very 
small part of reading and writing. Oral instruction in the 
fundamental truths of the Christian religion will be given by the 
missionaries themselves. The children should be taught early ; 
the boys to dig and plough, and the trades of shoemakers, 
tailors, carpenters and masons ; the girls to sew and cook and 
wash linen, and keep clean the rooms and furniture. The more 
promising of these children might be placed, by a law to be 
framed for this purpose, under the guardianship of the Governor 
and placed by him at a school, or in apprenticeship, in the more 
settled parts of the colony. Thus early trained, the capacity of- 
the race for the duties and employments of civilized life would 
be fairly developed.” — Letter from Lord John Russell to Sir G. 
Gipps ; Parliamentary Report on Aborigines, p. 74. 
