Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/220

 146 EVIL RESULTS TO THE ABORIGINES FROM COLONISATION. the treatment which they receive from the colonists. Now, these facts suggest that it is at least possible that those persons are mistaken who regard the extinction of the Aborigines as a painful certainty; also that there may be some faults in our method of treatment which are the causes of such lamentable consequences. The British are, as we all know, peculiarly disposed to selfgovernment. It is this which makes them such successful colonists. A small community is no sooner planted in any country than they exhibit the results of their national training in a capacity for regulating and organising their own affairs. Colonial governments proceed on the presumption that their people possess ability of this sort, and let them manage for themselves; hence district and shire councils are instituted, and all that sort of thing. It is very different with other European nations. When a number of Frenchmen or Dutchmen or Spaniards colonise, they proceed in quite a different way. They have always been accustomed to regard government as a something by which they were managed and regulated, and not so much as an organisation in which they took part themselves; consequently when an offshoot breaks from the body of the nation they are careful that a portion of the governing power shall go with it, so that these people may be regulated and formed into a community by the authorities to which they are accustomed. The weak are supported, the poor are provided for, the irregular are compelled to yield to the laws of order, and the roads and police and revenues are all under the control of the central power. Supposing, then, that there are Aborigines in the country to which these colonists go, they are all brought under the central government. What they must do and what they must not do is prescribed to them; officers are appointed with power to rule them; they are forbidden to pursue any practices which would be injurious to them; they are required to conform to the regulations which are made for their benefit. If necessary, even force is used to compel them, as refractory children, to do that which is for their good; and they do not become extinct under