Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/619

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TREATMENT OF NATIVES, NEW SOUTH WALES. 591 6. That iu the selection of emigrants, an absolute preference be given to young persons, and that no excess of males be conveyed to the colony free of cost. 7. That colonists providing a passage for emigrant labourers, being young persons and equal numbers of both sexes, be entitled to a payment in money from the Emigration Fund, equal to the actual contract price of a passage for so many labouring persons. 8. That erants be absolute in fee without any condition whatsoever, and obtainable by deputy. 9. That any surplus of the proceeds of the tax upon rent and of sales, over what is re(iuired for emigration, be employed in relief of other taxes, and for the general purposes oi Colonial Government. If Wakefield's belief were true, the principles on which Western Australia had been founded were false. The year 1829 witnessed the publication and the experiment. For this reason they are here placed side by side. The Coloni- zation Society, which sprung from the anonymous author's ideas, will properly be dealt with hereafter. It is sufficient to mention him now in connection with the occupation of new lands. While the land of Australia was thus parcelled out, the treatment of its original inhabitants was of the customary kind. On the Hunter Eiver, in former times, the com- mandant had availed himself of their services in capturing runaways and bushrangers. Backed by a knowledge of his support they had shown a courage and confidence not exceeded by their skill in tracking. The usual injuries by white men produced the usual results. A native whom the authorities described as Jackey Jackey (with two aliases) was seized on the Upper Hunter in the winter of 1826, was taken seventy miles to Wallis Plains (Maitland), and was on the 31st July handed to Lt. Lowe, 40th Eegt., the officer in command. His fate became the topic of rumour not altogether condemnatory. Brave men as well as others had arrived at the cowardly conclusion that the brutalities of the whites were inevitable, and that their consequences must be condoned or neglected by the government. Some were insolent enough to declare that it was the dispensation of Providence that the black race must be "stamped out" by the white. Darling's own conduct deserves censure. The Attorney- General, Saxe-Bannister, reported (Aug. 1826) that there was a common statement that the military had taken upon