2nd. The dreadful state of disease which is superinduced, and which
tends, in conjunction with other causes as before stated, to bring about
the gradual extinction of the race.
3rd. The encouragement a town affords to idleness, and the opportunities
to acquire bad habits, such as begging, pilfering, drinking, etc. the
effects of which must also have a very bad moral tendency upon the
children.
The town of Adelaide appears capable of supporting about six hundred
natives on an average. Many of these obtain their food by going errands,
by carrying wood or water, or by performing other light work of a similar
kind. Many are supported by the offal of a place where so much animal
food is consumed; but by far the greater number are dependent upon
charity, and some few even extort their subsistence from women or
children by threats, if they have the opportunity of doing so without
fear of detection.
The number of natives usually frequenting the town of Adelaide averages
perhaps 300, but occasionally there are even as many as 800. These do not
belong to the neighbourhood of the town itself, for the Adelaide tribe
properly so called only embraces about 150 individuals.
