absurd," and that in the generality of districts they could not follow the blacks; (3) that the expense of the force would be enormous, that it would be equal to the nucleus of a standing army, and that it would be ruined by long spells of idleness. There are some subsidiary objections which need not be noticed. The objection that a system compelling officers to report their operations, instead of forbidding them to do so as at present, would lead to disorganisation of the force, was probably a mere slip of the pen. We only propose to apply the regulation in force in every other police, quasi-military, or military body employed in the British dominions, with the sole exception of the Queensland native police.
Taking the objections seriatim, the first one can be speedily answered. The best bushmen in the colony would gladly join such a force as we project, simply because it would be desirable to offer good wages for reliable men—a very few of the right sort would do a great deal of the required work—and the employment would be honorable, and not degrading as at present. The objection that bushmen would not join a force that has been manned by black boys does not apply, because the change we project would practically create a new force. Besides, if it were not so, did our correspondent ever yet hear of a bushman refusing to undertake any kind of bush work simply because it had been previously performed by an aboriginal black boy? The second objection, that the idea of employing a white force is "wildly absurd," is a rather sweeping statement. Mr. William Miles is a very old bushman, and has been one of far wider experience probably than our correspondent, even so far back as 1868. He did no consider such a project, when mooted by Dr. Challinor, "wildly absurd," but approved of it; and the Hon. W. H. Walsh, acquainted with the value both of mangrove scrub and mountains as shelters for wild blacks, emphatically declared that white men were far more effective in punishing blacks than the Native Police. ("Hansard," vol. VI. pp. 949—963.) We are content to place assertion against assertion, adding to it that even by the very lax regulations of the Native Police force the white officers are supposed to accompany their troopers, and that as a matter of fact the country in which the former cannot travel is not penetrated by the latter. The third objection, that the cost of such a force would be enormous, that it would equal the nucleus of a standing army, and that it would be demoralised by too long spells of idleness, is compounded of statements mutually destructive. If the nucleus of a standing army were employed, their numbers would be so greatly in excess of what would be required for the work to be done that they might be demoralised by idleness. But what sane man would suggest the employment of so many? A considerable number would be required in a newly-occupied district, where blacks and whites were in a state of open war, but this would only be for a short time. A very brief experience of the futility of resistance, and the knowledge that while every act of hostility against the whites would be speedily and sternly checked, they would be carefully protected from injury and molestation while peaceable, would speedily make the blacks ready to submit. If only on the assumption that the blacks have as much intelligence as a dog this view must be correct, and as far as we know in every place where such a system has been attempted it has been thoroughly successful. Once this condition was established, a very small force would only be needed to preserve the peace.
