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Rh and was just on the point of entering the scrub when Mr. Shairpe fired at him from the top of the bank. The bullet intended for Alex hit Cassy. I do not justify the officer's action, but at the same time I for one, will not tax him with murder for what was purely an accident. Alex escaped at the time, and lived long enough to give us weeks of hard work years after. So much for Cassady's story. But let me ask whether a man who would shelter the ringleader in the double murder of Mr. and Mrs. Conn, as he did, does not carry his sympathy rather too far? I can remember Mr. Cassady sending for Native Police to disperse the blacks at; Fairview in 1873, and also his forwarding a letter to Mr. Sheridan, in Cardwell, in 1874, asking for blankets and tomahawks, he having in the interval constituted himself black protector, for his own interests, and to the detriment of his neighbors' property. In return for his kindness the blacks murdered one of the boys near Mr. Hawkins's, on Palm Creek. But what need to multiply instances? No one realises the necessity of speedy and radical change more than Native Police officers, as under the present system they are powerless to put a stop to the private patrols carried out on stations, or to the kidnapping of gins and boys by bullock-drivers, et hoc genus omne. But station owners complain, and justly so, that when they send for police so much time elapses that the blacks escape. Can the officer be blamed for this? Imagine a district 200 miles in diameter—that is, six hundred miles round—and put an officer, six troopers, and a wretched lot of old screws at a point in this circle, telling him that you hold him responsible for the peace and security of the district; and you have the system of Native Police patrolling as at present in operation. Can anything be more ridiculously ineffectual? Hence the numerous murders and outrages committed by black and white alike. But with all the will to do good, and to mitigate existing abuses, police officers have to combat such a diversity of opinions that they invariably find themselves reduced to merely patrolling their district, dispersing blacks when really necessary, and keeping them from infesting the roads. What can we do to ameliorate the condition of our aborigines? Not one of your many contributors has as yet attempted to solve this, the real point at issue. Many will say, "Let the blacks in everywhere." But can we do this with any hope of improving them? and can wild blacks be safely trusted near stations or outlying townships? The answer comes from past experience, and is emphatically in the negative. Who that has seen the squalid wretches about towns will say that they are as well off as when they lived in their savage state, or that their condition has been bettered by ever so little? We have a reserve at Mackay, and Mr. Bridgeman gives us an occasional report of its glorious success. But we also know that these same blacks have repeatedly made raids on the neighboring stations, fleeing back to the reserve to escape the well-mererited punishment which would otherwise have been inflicted by the police at Nebo. The question of amelioration, after all, lies in a nut-shell. It resolves itself into £ s.d. Now, is the Government prepared to place £100,000 on the Estimates for this purpose? I think not. And yet without an outlay far exceeding this sum we cannot hope to improve their position; and even then the results can only be of the most transient nature. The Victorian Government placed their aborigines under the protection of guardians from July 1, 1851, to June 18, 1860, the aggregate sum expended under that system being £14,181. The results obtained were, however, very unsatisfactory. On the 18th June, 1860, a Board was appointed for the Protection of the Aborigines, and a stun exceeding £100,000 had already been expended on them in 1878. Taking the mean of a whole number of estimates we find that when the whites first settled In Victoria there were about 4500 natives. Mr. Brough Smyth, from whose fine work I cull these facts, draws attention to the fact that, prior to the advent of the first settlers, a small-pox epidemic had greatly reduced their numbers. The total number of natives under the Board in 1876—that is, thirty-eight years after settlement—was 500. Thus we arrive at very startling facts. If the natives of a fine colony can by the sheer moral power of civilisation brought to bear upon them as an ameliorating agent be reduced in thirty-eight years by 4000, at an expenditure of £114,500, what can we expect to effect in a like period with a native population of fully 20,000, one-half of which may be said to have hardly entered into contact with our different systems? What, let me ask, would the advocates of amelioration give these savages in return for their dearly loved freedom? Where and what are the sweets that they intend should replace their inborn love of the chase? How do they propose to overcome the nomadic instincts, to which may be traced their very presence on this continent? Imagine even a small tribe of blacks forced to live for a short period on one spot! Would not a fearful epidemic be the result? But no; a few enthusiastic humanitarians, philanthropists, call them what you will, actually desire to alter every condition under which these savages have for