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Rh I do not think any of us see a way as yet; the question is too knotty, and by the time it is solved the blackfellow will be a thing of the past—and a good job too. As for the expense of the force proposed, why it would simply amount to keeping the nucleus of a small standing army; the men would be ruined by long spells of idleness, and when called upon for the work required would be found wanting. The constant saddle work that makes the outside stockman a wiry tireless being, able to outdo any blackfellow on his native heath, would be omitted in the case of our ideal policeman, who would find the chase very fatiguing after the first day or two.

Unless the Queenslander is able to evoke some better idea than the mere substitution of white for black troopers, it had better leave the matter to be settled in the natural way—and the survival of the fittest.—Yours &c.,

Queenslander May 15 1880.

,—In the Queenslander of the 8th instant is a letter signed "Never Never" in which the writer endeavors to justify the system upon which our Native Police force is conducted. I should be very sorry to believe that the writer actually believes one-half of what he has written, for if he does he ought to be locked up as a would-be murderer of the most dangerous description. It seems to me to betray a singular "obliquity of moral vision" when a man can casually refer to the wholesale murder of aborigines which is daily going on as a fair subject for doing a paragraph after the "big gooseberry" style during the "silly season." And yet, sir, the most distressing fact is that "Never Never's" letter very fairly embodies the spirit and sentiment of a large number of those who take active part in pioneer settlement. Even presuming the blacks have committed every enormity that is possible, is it not horrible and monstrous that the shedding of human blood should come to be regarded so lightly? Like "Never Never" I, too, have lived among blacks in a newly-settled district, and my experience is that blacks, like whites, have among them both good and bad, and that any wholesale massacre of them such as is daily perpetrated is as unjust as it is horrible in the sight of God and man. Are there ten men in Brisbane who really understand the working of our Native Police? How many among us understand the euphemistic word "dispersal?" Can they know that it means this?—A white man, "an officer and a gentleman," at the head of some half-dozen black murderers, watches a camp of blacks all night. The cool dawn of the morning comes, and the slender smoke circles up among the trees by the waterhole as the unsuspecting blacks wake to prepare their morning meal. Suddenly a shrill whistle, then the sharp rattle of Sniders, shriek on shriek, rushing to and fro: then, ammunition gone, the struggle at close quarters, and well-fed lusty savages, drunk with carnage, hewing down men, women, and children before them. How long shall these things be? for that they exist no dweller in outside country can deny. Are they not the theme of discussion by every camp fire in the Western land? And though much must be deducted for exaggeration, "where there is smoke there is fire." Why do the Native Police never take white men with them who might afterwards appear as witnesses against them? Surely this one fact should show that their deeds are evil. Is there a record in the Chief Commissioner's office in which any sub-inspector boldly says that he and his "boys" deliberately shot a certain number of blacks? Why, if all is right, should the truth not be openly stated? Why should we be unable to learn from official records what the public servants are doing? If it is advisable that, as a colony, we should indulge in wholesale murder of the race we ace dispossessing, let us have the courage of our opinions and murder openly and deliberately—calling it murder, not "dispersal." I hope I have said enough to attract attention to the loathsome and horrible system of dealing with our blacks that we as a colony have hitherto sanctioned. I have known gentlewomen in the bush who refused to allow officers of the Native Police to enter their doors, or share the generous hospitality accorded to every deserving wayfarer. Surely, sir, when a pure-minded gentlewoman need shudder to let herself or her children come in contact with a police officer there must be something particularly disgusting in his usual avocation. How is it that our police hardly ever bring to justice white men who offend against blacks? Do those of us who have lived in outside districts know of no outrages committed by whites? No black boys (servants who get no wages) brutally flogged and ill used? No young women forcibly abducted from the tribe for purposes I dare not mention here? When I think of the nameless deeds of horror that I have heard discussed openly by many a camp fire, I