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genius of the late Minister for Lands to devise
[?a] legislative measure for their extinction.
In further illustration of the antiquity of
the blackman's occupation of Australia, it is important
to remark that they have appropriated districts
to families and tribes, and in these exactly defined
districts or taorais* - the tribes have lived from
generation to generation until their dialects have
become mutually unintelligible. This great
difference of dialect can only be accounted for by
reference to the intense antipathies which divide
the several tribes, and the long lapse of times
during which the language of one people has
in the lips of the separeded communities divided
itself into these wide diversities.
II Leaving the region of conjecture as to
the past history of the race ^we will now enquire into
their present known condition. And [?first] as to
their laws, there are four great principles of Law
which are every where with slightly varying forms