The more numerous the white population becomes, and
the more advanced the stage of civilization to which the settlement
progresses, the greater are the hardships that fall to their lot and the
more completely are they cut off from the privileges of their birthright.
All that they have is in succession taken away from them - their
amusements, their enjoyments, their possessions, their freedom - and all
that they receive in return is obloquy, and contempt, and degradation,
and oppression. [Note 44 appears after note 43, below]
[Note 42: "But directly an European settles down in the country, his
constant residence in one spot soon sends the animals away from it, and
although he may in no other way interfere with the natives, the mere
circumstance of his residing there, does the man on whose land he settles
the injury of depriving him of his ordinary means of subsistence." - GREY'S
TRAVELS, vol. ii. p. 298.
"The great question was, were we to give them no equivalent for that which
we had taken from them? Had we deprived them of nothing? Was it
nothing that they were driven from the lands where their fathers
lived, where they were born and which were endeared to them by
associations equally strong with the associations of more civilsed
people? He believed that their affections were as warm as the Europeans."
"Perhaps he obtained his subsistence by fishing, and occupied a slip of
land on the banks of a river or the margin of a lake. Was he to be turned
off as soon as the land was required, without any consideration
whatever?" "Had any proper attempt been made for their civilization? They
had not yet had fair play - they had been courted by the missionaries with
the Bible on the one hand, and had at the sametime been driven away and
destroyed by the stock-keepers on the other. He thought that they might
be reclaimed if the proper course was adopted." - EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECH
OF SYDNEY STEPHEN, ESQ., AT A MEETING ON BEHALF OF THE ABORIGINES IN
SYDNEY, OCTOBER 19, 1838.
I have myself repeatedly seen the natives driven off private lands in the
vicinity of Adelaide, and their huts burned, even in cold wet weather.
The records of the Police Office will shew that they have been driven off
the Park lands, or those belonging to Government, or at least that they
have been brought up and punished for cutting wood from the trees there.
What are they to do, when there is not a stick or a tree within miles of
Adelaide that they can legally take?]
[Note 43: I have known repeated instances of natives in Adelaide
being bitten severely by savage dogs rushing out at them from the
yards of their owners, as they were peaceably passing along the street.