Page:Rambles in Australia (IA ramblesinaustral00grewiala).pdf/364

 about at little tables, and were waited on by the young daughters of the residents; and anyone seeing their pretty bright faces and healthy colour, would feel that the much-abused climate of Port Darwin had been greatly vilified. The scent of a wood fire was wafted over to us, from where the billy tea was boiling on some logs. The air was delicious; but we had not started till the heat of the day was over, for, owing to the unfortunate detention at Townsville, our stay at Darwin, a place of a hundredfold its interest, had been lamentably curtailed. We had hoped to see something of the native life. Here the native population has retained its primitive simplicity. The natives of the interior do not come into contact with other races. They are, unfortunately, dying out, like the native Australian animals, for what reason is not definitely known. The Commonwealth Year Book for 1912 gives the total number of the native population of the Northern Territory as 20,000, and adds that it is believed they are rapidly dying out. Of these, 1223 were semi-civilised, through coming into contact with, or being in the employment of, European residents.

The Australian native has always been in a different position from other primitive peoples. He has not had to contend either with races