but, granting that, it is evident we must accept the situation, and it is for us to do our duty in it. Wishing you success in your efforts—I am yours, &c.,
Pioneer.
—Queenslander, June 19, 1880.
Sir,—Allow me one word of comment upon "Never Never's" letter in your last issue. Callousness, to use a very mild word, seems to have outgrown any finer feelings this writer may have once possessed.
I have known of blacks when being dispersed seek refuge in trees, where, shrieking for mercy, they were shot down by their murderers beneath. "Never Never" would fain as easily dispose of the Queenslander's good taste and honesty of purpose. That blackfellows take a deal of killing sometimes and "die hard" he seems to know, and I trust that he may yet learn that naked truth is not to be dispersed by the pen, however facile, of any unhesitating utilitarian such as he undoubtedly is. Let him not seek to strengthen his position by dragging in the outside men. They are, I am happy to say, the great majority, strangers to his line of thought.—Yours, &c.,
June 2.
Humanity.
—Queenslander, June 19, 1880.
Sir,—In reply to "Outis'" correction of my communication relative to the "gentlemen's" reception of officers of the Native Police force, I beg the favor of stating that undoubtedly "gentlewomen" should have been the word used; and if I omitted doing so it is simply a mistake—one, however, that does not affect the question at issue; for I include "gentlemen" as well as "gentlewomen" as those from whom I and others of the force invariably received the greatest kindness, not only when in their own homes, but we were also honored by their visiting us in our barracks.
As regards the mode by which "Outis" obtained his information in re the atrocities, I am quite prepared to admit the reliability of his informants, namely, the relatives or friends of the blacks dispersed. Would the honest womanly feelings of those two "gentlewomen," think you, have undergone a change towards the Native Police officers had their homes been surrounded by hostile myalls, or would "Outis" consider such wholesale murderers and refuse their assistance had they come to their relief? I have known of two similar occurrences.
In all services there are without doubt black sheep, but I assert emphatically that as a body the Native Police officers are as honorable and, I maintain, as humane as any body of officers in the service of the Crown, and would regard with as great horror as "Outis" himself the atrocities with which he charges them.—Yours, &c.,
Veritas.
—Queenslander, June 19, 1880.
Sir,—I have read with painful interest and deep sympathy your article No. III., "How we civilise the blacks," and I desire to support the philanthropic view which you justly take of the cause of what are usually termed "atrocities of the aborigines" being really "white aggression." I need only point to the first white sufferer who fell from black spears, in what is now known as Queensland—my very esteemed and noble friend Kennedy, the last to provoke the enmity of the savage. Then, why was he killed? is the natural enquiry. If the Queensland Government have preserved the book which was kept at the Booby Island post office, you may find there the record in the handwriting of Kennedy's real murderer, though indirectly, about seven years previously—namely, about June, 1841—in which Grayburne, the master of the Brothers, records the fact of while sailing past the York Islands he "shot a blackfellow." Here we have a picture of a British vessel sailing along the coast while natives are peacefully gathering shellfish for their meal, when this unblushing British tar (no, not tar, but brute) tries the range of his musket, and thinks himself a clever shot. I read this a few days after its entry, and remarked that I pitied the first white man that came within reach of that tribe. The opportunities were rare, but Kennedy came at last. Who, again, carried off two young children from the tribe on poor Wills' run and brought them to Sydney never to return? But Wills, unconscious
