Page:Aboriginal welfare 1937.djvu/11

 treated as whites. In my State there are several institutions for the treatment of the natives, including eleven missions and a number of departmental establishments. At the mission stations, the natives are encouraged to multiply by marriage, with a consequent increase of population. The missions are thus able to claim that they are doing valuable work for the natives. Undoubtedly they are doing good work, but they keep an increasing number of natives on their properties, whereas the departmental institutions, whilst approving marriages, encourage the natives to mix with the general community, and earn their own living which, I am glad to say, they are doing. As a matter of fact, for some years now I have not been able to supply sufficient youngsters of both sexes to meet the demand for their labour.

As I have pointed out, the policy of the missions is in direct contrast to that of the department, because they do not encourage the young people born on the mission properties to leave them. The ultimate result of this policy in Western Australia will be an increase of the number of coloured people, that is, half-castes, and a diminution of the number of full-blooded aborigines. It seems to me that the task which confronts us is educating and training these people to enable them to be assimilated into the white community. Accordingly we have taken steps to improve the health and physical fitness of the coloured population. At present only about 10 per cent of those people show any sign of ill-health, and the majority of the complaints from which they may suffer are trifling. This has been ascertained over two or three years of intensive medical inspection.

If the coloured people of this country are to be absorbed into the general community they must be thoroughly fit and educated at least to the extent of the three R's. If they can read, write and count, and know what wages they should get, and how to enter into an agreement with an employer, that is all that should be necessary. Once that is accomplished there is no reason in the world why these coloured people should not be absorbed into the community. To achieve this end, however, we must have charge of the children at the age of six years; it is useless to wait until they are twelve or thirteen years of age. In Western Australia we have power under the act to take any child from its mother at any stage of its life, no matter whether the mother be legally married or not. It is, however, our intention to establish sufficient settlements to undertake the training and education of these children so that they may become absorbed into the general community.

Another important point is marriage. I realise that the problem in Queensland, as outlined by Mr. Bleakley, is different; but the natives in Western Australia are mostly of “purer” stock. There is some Asiatic blood in the north, and a certain amount of negroid strain also is to be seen due to the fact that some of the early settlers brought with them to Western Australia negro servants who left their mark on the native population. The negro strain remains. The Asiatic cross, however, is not a bad one. We find that half-caste Asiatics do very well indeed; in fact, very often they beat the white cross. In order that the existing state of affairs in Western Australia shall continue, and in order to prevent the return of those half-castes who are nearly white to the black, the State Parliament has enacted legislation including the giving of control over the marriages of half-castes. Under this law no half-caste need be allowed to marry a full-blooded aboriginal if it is possible to avoid it, but the missions do not always take steps to prevent this from occurring; they allow the half-castes under their control to marry anybody.

Dr. MORRIS.—You cannot stop them from having babies even if they don't marry.

Mr. NEVILLE.—We realise that. As a matter of fact that very often does occur as the result of half-castes mingling with whites; but that does not matter very much. What does matter is that, when a child is born and the father cannot be found, the child becomes a charge upon the State.

Another matter upon which we differ from Queensland is in the fundamental character of the natives. Mr. Bleakley has mentioned settlements and cultivation; our experience is that one can never make a farmer out of a native—seldom even out of a half-caste. In Western Australia blocks of land have been granted to the natives and all that they have done is to build humpies and then sit down. Without constant supervision it is impossible to make them cultivate land. Then we have the important difference between the female and the male. In furtherance of the scheme which we have in view, we have definitely excluded from certain provisions of the net a male adult person of half-blood who is living more or less like a white man. We give him the benefit of the doubt, and tell him that so long as he does certain things and conforms to the act we shall not worry about him. In other words, we give him a chance to enter into the communal life of the State. Many have taken advantage of this provision and have done so. However, it is a gradual process to merge the two races. As I have explained, in Western Australia we have full-blooded aborigines, half-castes from detribalized blacks, and half-castes producing their own children. In the lower half of the State we are approaching the stage where half-castes will be able to be assimilated. It will be, perhaps, 25 years before the same stage is reached in the middle north, and 50 years in the far north. In any case there is no reason why we should not adopt a long-sighted policy.

An important aspect of this policy is the cost. The different States are creating institutions for the welfare of the native race, and, as the result of this policy, the native population is increasing. What is to be the limit? Are we going to have a population of 1,000,000 blacks in the Commonwealth or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there ever were any aborigines in Australia? There are not many now, whereas not so many generations ago there were a great many. When Western Australia was first settled in 1829 it is alleged that there was a population within the State of 55,000 natives. In the south-west portion of the State alone there were 13,000 natives. In 1901 the native population in the south-west was reduced to 1,419, of whom 45 per cent were half-castes. To-day there are nearly 6,000 natives in the same area, so I venture the opinion that in 25 years' time the native population in that district alone will have increased to 15,000. How can we keep them apart from the community? Our own population is not increasing at such a rapid rate as to lead us to expect that there will be a great many more white people in that area 25 years hence than there are at present. The aborigines have inter-married with our people. I know of some 80 white men who are married to native women, with whom they are living happy, contented lives, so I see no objection to the ultimate absorption into our own race of the whole of the existing Australian native race. In order to do this we must guard the health of the natives in every possible way so that they may be, physically, as fit as is possible. The children must be trained as we would train our own children. The stigma at present attaching to half-castes must be banished. In Western Australia half-caste boys and men take part in football, cricket and other games on a footing equal to that of their white clubmates, but are excluded from the