And those only who have been
acquainted with the life of slavery and degradation a native female is
subject to, can at all form an opinion of the wretched prospect before
her.
[Note 108: The importance of a change in the system and policy adopted
towards the Aborigines, and the urgent necessity for placing the schools
upon a different and better footing, appears from the following extract
from a despatch from Governor Hutt to Lord Stanley, 21st January, 1843, in
which the difficulties and failure attending the present system are
stated. Mr. Hutt says (Parliamentary Reports, p. 416). "It is to the
schools, of course, that we must look for any lasting benefit to be
wrought amongst the natives, and I regret most deeply the total
failure of the school instituted at York, and the partial failure
of that at Guilford, both of which at FIRST promised so well. The
fickle disposition of these people, in youth as in older years,
incapacitate them from any long continued exertions, whether of
learning or labour, whilst from the roving lives of the parents in
search of food, the children, if received into the schools, must
be entirely supported at the public expense. This limits the sphere
of our operations, by restricting the number of the scholars who
can thus be taken charge of. Through the kindly co-operation of the
Wesleyan Society at Perth, and the zealous pastoral exertions of the Rev.
Mr. King at Fremantle, the schools at both these places have been
efficiently maintained; but in the country, and apart from the large
towns, to which the Aborigines have an interest in resorting in large
numbers for food and money, the formation of schools of a lasting
character will be for some time a work of doubt and of difficulty."]
There are two other points connected with the natives to which I will
briefly advert: the one, relative to the language in which the school
children are taught, the other, the policy, or otherwise, of having
establishments for the natives in the immediate vicinity of a town, or of
a numerous European population.
With respect to the first, I may premise, that for the first four years
the school at the location in Adelaide was conducted entirely in the
native tongue. To this there are many objections.
First, the length of time and labour required for the instructor to
master the language he has to teach in.
Secondly, the very few natives to whom he can impart the advantages of
instruction, as an additional school, and another teacher would be
required for every tribe speaking a different dialect.
Thirdly, the sudden stop that would be put to all instruction if the
preceptor became ill, or died, as no one would be found able to supply
his place in a country where, from the number, and great differences of
the various dialects, there is no inducement to the public to learn any
of them.
