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 them firmly and kindly; it is treating them kindly to-day and cruelly to-morrow that gives cause for the remarks made by "North Gregory;" or coming in contact with strange blacks that are only waiting an opportunity to avenge some wrong they have received at the hands of the police; precaution should therefore be taken when amongst strange blacks. I was residing on the Dawson, not far from Banana, when Mr. Wills and his men got murdered. If the blacks had known him to be the kind-hearted man he was, or if he had taken the proper precaution until they knew him, I have no reason to doubt but that, gentleman would have got on well with them, and would be alive probably to-day.

In conclusion, I am satisfied that a force of white police such as you have described through the columns of the Queenslander, officered by men like Sub-inspector Lamond, would regulate the evils now existing. Lower Herbert, July 23.

[The writer of the above letter, in a private note which accompanied it, gave his authority, if we pleased, to append his name in full. but, all things considered, we think it better to publish his initials merely.—. Q.]—Queenslander, Aug. 7, 1880.

,—I have read with great interest the leaders and correspondence which have appeared in your columns on this subject. It is particularly edifying to note the sudden awakening of virtuous colonists to the necessity of doing something for the amelioration of the indigenous races of Queensland—a fact, by the way, which must have been patent to everyone possessing a grain of common sense. In debating a question of such vital importance—a question in which the people whose future welfare is at stake have no voice; appealing to our better feelings through nature's laws, which have instilled beneficent qualities in the white man, and, to a lesser degree, in the black—personal recriminations and accusations are very much to be deplored, and I am of opinion such unseemly bickerings should be stringently suppressed. Vilification is not argument, and I must express my astonishment that an influential journal, the paper par excellence of Queensland, should have set the example in ransacking our vocabulary of opprobrious epithets for the purpose of insulting some fifteen or twenty gentlemen to whose watchful and energetic care the safety of outlying districts has been entrusted by the Government. No possible benefit could accrue from such a course. Every educated man and woman in Queensland is perfectly aware that without the Native Police security in the bush would be a myth, and that the abolition of the force would mark the commencement of an era of rapine and murder hardly ever equalled, and certainly never surpassed, in the history of mankind. To what end does "Outis" treat us to his rhapsody anent pure-minded gentlewomen? What has such a statement to do with the question? If this writer is sincere, why did not he raise his voice before on behalf of his much-oppressed race? I can tell "Outis" an anecdote which, I think, puts his virtuous declaration in a different light:—Years ago a Native Police officer, patrolling in the South Kennedy district, called at a station where he received treatment so rude, so utterly at variance with the usages of bush hospitality, that on returning to his barracks he openly declared his intention of never again calling at that station. Three weeks after this the blacks commenced killing the cattle on this very station, and for some time every endeavor was made to make peace with them, and to come to an understanding that in return for peaceful conduct on their part they would receive nothing but kindness and protection, and would be allowed to come in. The blacks, as they invariably do, mistook leniency for fear and the result was a requisition for police protection. On the arrival of a Native Police officer he was received with open arms and made much of; in his own words, "I became the white-headed boy." My own experience proves very conclusively that most of this sympathy for the blacks is ruled entirely by the pocket instead of coming from the heart. Again, Mr. Cassady gives you the story of the gin Cassy, shot on the Lower Herbert, but this man belongs to a very different class of writer from "Outis," who merely states plain facts truthfully. I was at Bellenden Plains when the gin was shot, and can assure your readers that Mr. Cassady was entirely wrong in leading them to believe that Sub-inspector Shairpe shot Cassy wilfully. Mr. Cassady deliberately charges this murder to an officer, when he must be perfectly cognisant of the true facts of the case. Mr. Shairpe was escorting a deserter named Alex, who he arrested at Gairloch, back to Waterview, accompanied by a trooper (Simon) and the gin Cassy. When passing a point of scrub on Cudmore's selection Alex, who was walking alongside the trooper's horse, made a bolt for the scrub followed by Cassy. He was repeatedly called upon to stand