500 
NECESSITY OF PROTECTING NATIVES 
our habits and pursuits, making an effort to rise in 
the scale of moral and physical improvement. What- 
ever alteration therefore we may make in our sys- 
tem for the better, or however anxious we may be 
for the welfare and the improvement of the Abori- 
gines, we may rest well assured that our efforts are 
but thrown away, as long as the natives are per- 
mitted with impunity to exercise their cruel or de- 
grading customs upon each other, unchecked and 
unpunished. We may feel equally certain that these 
oppressions and barbarities can never be checked or 
punished but by means of their own unsupported 
testimony against each other, and until this can be 
legally received, and made available for that pur- 
pose, there is no hope of any lasting or permanent 
good being accomplished. 
The following very forcible and just remarks are 
from Captain Grey’s work, vol. ii. pages 375 to 
378:- 
“ I would submit, therefore, that it is necessary from the mo- 
ment the Aborigines of this country are declared British subjects, 
they should, as far as possible, be taught that the British laws 
are to supersede their own, so that any native who is suffering 
under their own customs, may have the power of an appeal to 
those of Great Britain ; or to put this in its true light, that all 
authorized persons should, in all instances, be required to protect 
a native from the violence of his fellows, even though they be in 
the execution of their own laws. 
“ So long as this is not the case, the older natives have at 
their disposal the means of effectually preventing the civilization 
of any individuals of their own tribe, and those among them who 
