Carl Adolf Feilberg

“ No other settlers have to deal with a race of savages so thoroughly helpless in face of the white man's weapons as our blacks. The Dutch Boer may deal cruelly with the Kaffirs who surround him, but at least he defies the assegais of a valiant race of barbarians who can wage war with him on something like equal terms. He may be cruel, but at least he is not a coward. There is an irresistible tendency in human nature to regard with a deeper contempt the criminal who takes a cowardly advantage of his victim, than the one who risks his own skin in open conflict. ”

“ Imagine even a small tribe of blacks forced to live for a short period on one spot! Would not a fearful epidemic be the result? But no; a few enthusiastic humanitarians, philanthropists, call them what you will, actually desire to alter every condition under which these savages have for ages existed, and to change their very instincts by the mere force of a master will, as typified in the white man, expecting in their shortsightedness to transform what always has been the lowest grade of humanity into a useful and creditable element in the commonwealth. Could any scheme be more Quixotic? ”

“ If the natives of a fine colony can by the sheer moral power of civilisation brought to bear upon them as an ameliorating agent be reduced in thirty-eight years by 4000, at an expenditure of £114,500, what can we expect to effect in a like period with a native population of fully 20,000, one-half of which may be said to have hardly entered into contact with our different systems? What, let me ask, would the advocates of amelioration give these savages in return for their dearly loved freedom? ”

“ Why, if all is right, should the truth not be openly stated? Why should we be unable to learn from official records what the public servants are doing? If it is advisable that, as a colony, we should indulge in wholesale murder of the race we ace dispossessing, let us have the courage of our opinions and murder openly and deliberately—calling it murder, not "dispersal." I hope I have said enough to attract attention to the loathsome and horrible system of dealing with our blacks that we as a colony have hitherto sanctioned. ”

“ And if we, by common consent, punish those who torture an animal, what plea have we to urge for the horrible brutality with which we assert our mastery over creatures lower in the scale of humanity than ourselves, but still men and women able to feel and suffer in the same manner as we do? In the form that our cruelty assumes, in our vices, we acknowledge their humanity, and yet we deny to them the plea for immunity from unnecessary suffering which we admit on behalf of the brutes. That immunity is the first claim we make on behalf of the blacks. ”

“ And here, by the way, let me ask, why does "Outis"—whose tone is so business-like and straightforward on his own scheme—why does he think it necessary the moment he touches on the recent system to rush into the "penny dreadful" style? And what would "Outis'" scheme amount to if carried out in the manner he advocates? Slavery pure and simple, and on a scale the most gigantic perhaps the world has ever witnessed. We are to coax what blacks we can into making agreements for a term of years to work in another part of the colony, and all those who will not work willingly are to be forced to work. ”

“ To anyone who has had any hand in black repression, the calm statement that white police should be used for the purpose is so wildly absurd that it seems like tilting at a windmill to reply seriously to it. ”

“ Why, if the law had to be put in force with every black criminal in the same manner as with a white man the colony would be bankrupt in a year. Does "Outis" really think it to be the duty of the Native Police officer to take every prisoner down to, say, Rockhampton? And does be not know that it would be impossible to get legal evidence against one wild blackfellow in ten thousand?
With regard to what you say in the last Queenslander I have seen (May 29) about the South Australian system, it is no wonder that it does not cost so much as ours, for, practically, they have no police in the bush. ”

“ And still we wish to force all these fatal observances upon them under the so-called guise of humanity! Nothing that we can do will alter the inscrutable and withal immutable laws which direct our progress on this globe. By these laws the native races of Australia were doomed on the advent of the white man, and the only thing left for us to do is to assist in carrying them out with as little cruelty as possible, and to endeavor to extend the period of their action over as great a span of time as we possibly can. ”

“ I, too, have lived among blacks in a newly-settled district, and my experience is that blacks, like whites, have among them both good and bad, and that any wholesale massacre of them such as is daily perpetrated is as unjust as it is horrible in the sight of God and man. Are there ten men in Brisbane who really understand the working of our Native Police? How many among us understand the euphemistic word "dispersal?" Can they know that it means this?—A white man, "an officer and a gentleman," at the head of some half-dozen black murderers, watches a camp of blacks all night. ”

“ For this purpose we have proposed that the police employed to regulate the natives shall consist of white men, accustomed to the bush, assisted by black trackers. Their duties should be to fight the blacks while in a state of open war against the white settlers who occupy the country; to protect them from molestation by the whites when quiet, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of the many fiendish outrages committed by Europeans on helpless and unoffending blacks; and to punish with discriminating rigor injuries committed by the blacks on the settlers. ”

“ I have known personally or by reputation many police officers, and, although there may be black sheep in every flock, I do no believe that as a class they can be justly accused of having exercised unnecessary severity in punishing the blacks. Nine out of ten of those who like myself have suffered continually from their depredations in former years will bear me out in saying that, generally, any attempt to fix the blame on any particular members of a tribe, when all had more or less a hand in the depredation, would have been simply unsuccessful. ”

“ And, if neither the sentiment; of humanity nor the desire of freeing our settlers from a constant source of danger will influence our legislators, we have yet one more inducement to action to put before them. They have, we hope and believe, some regard for the good name of the colony, some desire to see it stand well in the estimation of their countrymen in the mother country. The statements we have made—the truth of which none know better than those who most loudly denounce them—have gone before the great tribunal of public opinion in the British empire. ”

“ I have already pointed out that the main source of evil amongst the blacks is the upsetting of their social laws, and I think all who have seen much of outside blacks will agree with me that under any such white supervision as proposed the relation between the sexes would be more unsatisfactory than ever. And in connection with this matter I allow the whites have been much to blame, and I would be the last to palliate their conduct. But practically this is an evil which no Government measures can reach, and which must exist as long as human nature is what it is. ”

“ And we have good reason to believe that not a few Native Police officers—men who have discharged their duty without unnecessary cruelty—and who themselves have often grown sick at heart over the work they have been compelled to do, would heartily welcome such an enquiry, for they would feel that it must lead to the establishment of a reformed system in which they could use their knowledge of the bush and of the natives in the performance of work which had nothing dishonorable about it, and, nothing which need fear the light of day. ”

“ It seems to me a great shame to persistently run down a force which (as every reasonable, thinking pioneer must admit) has been to a great extent the means of saving life and property in all outside districts. We have heard of instances of great cruelty on the part of one or two officers, but then one black sheep does not make the whole flock black, and as a rule I am sure that the officers are as much averse to anything in the shape of cruelty as "Humanity" himself. ”

“ The blacks pay the Europeans a high compliment—they abandon their own habits and adopt ours—and they show what apt scholars they are by braining the first unoffending and friendly white man they can find. Until some equitable system such that proposed by the Queenslander is adopted, outsiders must die as poor Welford died, or take part in the disgusting and murderous hunting down of the wretched feeble savages that is constantly going on. ”

“ We are determined that the public shall understand what they are doing, and that if no attempt is made at a reform the refusal shall come from people who thoroughly comprehend their responsibility. As far as we are able we shall tear away the veil with which those who know what our system is have hitherto kept it covered, and remove the ignorance in which a considerable portion of the public have been content to remain. ”

“ Furthermore, I am what would be called a "white murderer," for I have had to "disperse" and assist to disperse blacks on several occasions. The blackfellow of Queensland is an embodiment of contradictions: he is a brave man, and an abject coward; an angel for good nature, and a demon for cruelty; the personification of laziness, and yet capable of untiring perseverance; a riddle, and a hopeless one, so far as guessing him is concerned. A blackfellow learns our vices, and unlearns what savage virtues he possesses, with fatal facility. The uncivilised "myall" is bad enough ”

“ Victoria and New South Wales and other colonies have each had to grapple with this evil, and each has found the panacea to be a matter of time only. A being may be living in the midst of us having a body covered with ulcerous and disgusting sores, yet while he keeps himself decently covered we have no suspicion of—and consequently experience no uneasiness from—his objectionable presence; but no sooner does some well-meaning friend expose the sores to the public view than we raise our voice in horror and wonder how such things could be. ”

“ Every resident of Brisbane who, becoming aware of what is going on, neglects to do what he can in his capacity as citizen and voter to wipe out the stain which rests on the whole colony, shares the disgrace of it. And this is particularly the case in regard to the Native Police. The officer of that force who does not permit brutality in the execution of his duty must be a man of very exceptional firmness of character. ”

“ As a remedy for the social evil, you suggest that white police should be employed, and that "their duty should be to repress any outrage by the blacks, and for that purpose they should have the same license that is accorded to any hostile force in the time of war;" or, in other words, that the present system of police protection should still be maintained, with this difference only, that instead of being a mixed body of white and black the members should be white only. ”

“ But once in six or seven years our virtue becomes outrageous. We cannot suffer the laws of religion and decency to be violated. We must make a stand against vice." We now appear about to suffer one of these "periodical fits," and, casting about for a scapegoat, fix upon the person of the pioneer—the settler of the interior; the key of the inland terra incognita we might call him—to bear the brunt of our virtuous indignation. But we should bear in mind that it is possible to be virtuous and yet unjust at the one time, and this appears to me to be the position the Queenslander has assumed. ”