TO ABORIGINAL EVIDENCE. 
493 
this people, whilst upon it depends entirely our 
power of enforcing' any laws or regulations we may 
make with respect to them, I allude to the law of 
evidence as it at present stands with respect to 
persons incompetent to give testimony upon oath. 
It is true that in South Australia an act has very 
recently passed the legislative council to legalize the 
unsworn testimony of natives in a court of justice, 
but in that act there occurs a clause which com- 
pletely neutralizes the boon it was intended to grant, 
and which is as follows, “ Provided that no person, 
whether an Aboriginal or other, shall he convicted of 
any offence by any justice or jury upon the sole 
testimony of any such uncivilized persons.” 7 & 8 
Victoria, section 5. 
Here then we find that if a native were ill-treated 
or shot by an European, and the whole tribe able 
to bear witness to the fact, no conviction and no 
punishment could ensue : let us suppose that in an 
attempt to maltreat the native, the European should 
be wounded or injured by him, and that the Euro- 
pean has the native brought up and tried for a mur- 
derous attack upon him, how would it fare with the 
poor native ? the oath of the white man would 
overpower any exculpatory unsworn testimony that 
the native could bring, and his conviction and pu- 
nishment would be (as they have been before) cer- 
tain and severe. 
Without attempting to assign a degree of cre- 
dence to the testimony of a native beyond what it 
