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[Page 11]
From being, in their native state a strictly moral race
they had lapsed considerably and as for the European's
alcoholic liquors, they were his curse, his bane, and his
undoing and the gradual depletion of his race in numbers
may be traced to this cause rather then to any
other.
Excessive use of strong tobacco may also have adversely
affected his health, to some extent, for even
the women and children smoked. Smallpox must at
one time have attacked them for there were several
pockmarked men on the Richmond in my time, and at
Grafton, in 1870, there were two or three old gins
suffering badly from goitre.
In regard to employment the blacks were useful as
stockmen and in any bush work such as clearing and
burning of timber, ringbarking and so on. But I am
afraid the white employer "sweated" them shamefully
the argument being "no good giving the blacks much
money, they only spend it at the pub". Quite oblivious
of the fact that many white employees did exactly
the same thing. Blacks were expected to do as much for
£1, with their rations and, perhaps some cast off garments,
as would cost £10 or £12 by white labour. It
is true their labour was not quite so satisfactory as that
of the high paid labourer for after starting a job enthusiastically,
they often got tired of it and wanted to
"go walk about" and have a little relaxation before
finishing it off. This cannot be wondered at for after
being warriors and hunters for countless generations
they could hardly be expected, within a few decades,
to equal the bred-to-labour Anglo Saxon.
Physically they were muscular, sinewy, and of athletic
build but rarely over the middle height, a six foot
man being an exception and I only remember two or
three, including King Billy of Yulgibar who was over
that height and of magnificent build and physique.
Their noses were depressed at the base and spread at
the nostrils, though Gentleman John was an exception.
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He was an old man of courteous and gentle demeanour
and had in his youth been partly crippled by a fall from
a tree. His nose was aquiline and his skin copper
coloured suggesting the possibility that he may have
had foreign blood in his veins, perhaps derived from
the occupant of some castaway canoe wind driven
across from some Pacific island. He belonged to the
Casino-Lismore tribe and he and King Billy were the
only aboriginals I knew who would not touch alcoholic
liquor.
The keen eyesight of the blacks is common knowledge
and we found that almost any accidentally lost
article or animal could speedily be recovered by the
promise of a fig of tobacco as a reward. When searching
for cedar in the dense brushes of the Richmond
we always took a blackfellow with us his bush craft
and keen vision enabling him to find the valuable trees
much more quickly than we ourselves could.
Though no doubt, in the early pioneering days the
blacks did sometimes rob and murder, by the seventies
they had become quite as amenable to law and order
as the average whites in fact, I think, rather more so.
Be that as it may, both at Bellevue and at Bentley,
we found them honest and harmless though they had
plenty of opportunities to thieve if they wished to do
so for in our houses and outbuildings we had no locks
or bolts and tools or other articles left in the bush, or
in our camps, were never interfered with by the blacks
and were as safe as if they were under our own eyes.
Their most objectionable characteristic was want of
personal cleanliness and the odour of their unwashed
bodies was certainly unpleasant. But, are there not
also many of the superior white race by no means immaculate
in regard to personal cleanliness?
The blacks were a laughter loving people with a keen
sense of humour and quick to pick up and enjoy a
joke and, on the whole, were kind to their children
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and old people. As an instance of the latter, for many
years Bolim fed and supported his father, a helpless
cripple, and on their many migrations, carried the old
fellow pick-a-back from camp to camp and neither complained
nor grumbled about his filial responsibilities.
Dogs they would never kill, not even superfluous puppies,
the consequence being that these animals became
so numerous that there was rarely enough food about
the camps to feed them properly so that they usually
looked half starved. But they were never cruelly
beaten or maltreated in any way.
In conclusion may I say that critics may perhaps be
inclined to think that my "records and recollections" of
a fast vanishing race are too favourable and too rose-
coloured.
That I may have forgotten stories that have been
told and written about certain "cave-man" habits and
customs which were once prevalent amongst the
aborigines.
When, for instance, his laws forbade him to choose
a wife from his own tribe because of consanguinity his
only alternative was to take one from some other tribe,
and should the chosen one prove reluctant force was
necessary to enable the would be bridegroom to achieve
his purpose.
This generally took the form of a tap or two over
the skull with a mullah thus partially stunning the prospective
bride and allowing her to be carried off without
further fuss.
I admit also that I once saw an old gin who walked
with a curious wobble. I found out that as a young
woman she had bolted several times from her spouse
who, at last, drastically and effectually stopped further
flights by hamstringing one leg!
I contend that isolated acts of cruelty which may be
quoted against them do not prove that, on the whole,
our aborigines were otherwise than, a kindly and
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