It Is However, Perfectly Apparent That The Termination Of The Mission Has Arisen Solely From The Aborigines Becoming Extinct In

These districts, and the very few that remain elsewhere are so scattered, that it is impossible to congregate them for

Instruction; and when seen in the towns, they are generally unfit to engage in profitable conversation. The thousands of Aborigines, if ever they did exist in these parts, decreased to hundreds, the hundreds have lessened to tens, and the tens will dwindle to units before a very few years will have passed away."

"This mission to the Aborigines has ceased to exist, not from want of support from the British Government, nor from the inclination of the agent, but purely from the Aborigines themselves becoming extinct in these parts; and in leaving this scene of much solitariness, privation, and trial, it is earnestly hoped that He who fixes the bounds of our habitation, apparently in Sydney for a season, will guide our feet through life to his glory, and provide support for a numerous family, so that the 'ministry be not blamed.'"]

On the natural intelligence of the native children, Mr. Moorhouse remarks, after several years practical experience: -

"They are as apt as European children so far as they have been tried, but they have not been put to abstract reasoning. Their perceptive powers are large, as they are much exercised in procuring food, etc. Anything requiring perception only is readily mastered, the alphabet will be known in a few lessons; figures are soon recognised, and the quantities they represent, but addition from figures alone always presents difficulties for a while, but in a little time, however, it is understood."

Upon the same subject, Captain Grey remarks, vol.

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