Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central Australia And Overland From Adelaide To King George's Sound In The Years 1840-1: Sent By The Colonists Of South Australia By Eyre, Edward John
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- "It Would Be Difficult To Define What
Conceivable Proprietary Rights Were Ever Enjoyed By The Miserable Savages
Of South Australia,
Who never cultivated an inch of the soil, and whose
ideas of the value of its direct produce never extended
Beyond obtaining
a sufficiency of pieces of white chalk and red ochre wherewith to bedaub
their bodies for their filthy corrobberies." Many similar proofs might be
given of the general feeling entertained respecting the rights of the
Aborigines, arising out of their original possession of the soil. It is a
feeling, however, that can only have originated in an entire ignorance of
the habits, customs, and ideas of this people. As far as my own
observation has extended, I have found that particular districts, having
a radius perhaps of from ten to twenty miles, or in other cases varying
according to local circumstances, are considered generally as being the
property and hunting-grounds of the tribes who frequent them. These
districts are again parcelled out among the individual members of the
tribe. Every male has some portion of land, of which he can always point
out the exact boundaries. These properties are subdivided by a father
among his sons during his own lifetime, and descend in almost hereditary
succession. A man can dispose of or barter his land to others; but a
female never inherits, nor has primogeniture among the sons any peculiar
rights or advantages. Tribes can only come into each other's districts by
permission, or invitation, in which case, strangers or visitors are
always well treated.
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