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MASSACRE OE THE BLACKS IN
QUEENSLAND.
Mr. Gideon S. Lang, in a lecture delivered in Mel-
bourne on the 13th ultimo, on the subject of the
Aboriginal blacks, spoke in the following terms of the
wholesale slaughter of those people, which is being
perpetrated in Queensland, under the sanction apparently
of the Government of that colony. We may say in
corroboration of Mr Lang's statements, that private
information which we have received at various times,
and from different sources, during the last three or four
years, bears out all and more than all that is mentioned
below:—
In Queensland the massacre is wholesale and indis-
criminate, and most fearfully aggravated by the em-
ployment of the native police. It is well-known, and
always has been, by the squatters (many of whom
abominate the very name of them) that when the
black troopers are let loose they are completely beyond
the control of their officers: and that, even in the open
country, and within sight, if thev can restrain them
from firing upon women—which I beleive the officers
generally do—it is all they can accomplish. But when
the natives, on being suddenly charged, rush into the
scrub, and the black troopers strip naked and follow,
with cartridge-box and firearms, they kill all they over-
take, without distinction of age or sex. About ten
years ago I stated my determination to expose the
whole system. Though the squatters acknowledged
and lamented the occurrence of such atrocities, they
remonstrated against doing away with the native
police, unless I could show how they were to protect
their people from large bodies of blacks, exasperated to
the highest degree, yet unsubdued.
I refrained then, but from the softened accounts
allowed to appear in the press, and from private infor-
mation, I know that the same ruthless system has con-
tinued, and was never more cruelly carried out than
within the three last years, as is perfectly well known
to the initiated. My information is fully confirmed by
a letter in to-day's Argus, from Morrill, the ship-
wrecked seaman, so many years among the Queensland
blacks. Speaking of Leichhardt, he says:— " I am ex-
ceedingly sorry no steps were taken to trace Leichhardt
when I first came in and was in Brisbane, for then I
should have been happy to join such an expedition.
From 1850 to 1860, before the whites commenced
destroying the blacks indiscriminately, the northern
tribes were very well disposed towards the whites. In
1855 it was reported among the tribe I was with
that a party of whites were to the north, and I after-
wards heard that all this party, except one man, had
grown thin and died. This I suppose to have
been King's party. About six months after this I
heard of another party of whites; they were said to be
to the N.W. of Mount Elliott, half-way between that
and the Gulf, and were described as having a large
number of horses and cattle; but I never heard what
became of this second party. Is it not possible that this
was Leichhardt's? There was a report in 1849 that
the explorer was cut off and massacred by the blacks of
the Maranoa district. Now, by my own experience, I
do not think this is true. Had he been cut off, it is not
likely they would have killed him ; but on the contrary,
would do everything to preserve him—even going with-
out food themselves to supply him. If he is dead, it is
from want of water—the blacks would never let him
starve ; and when a fight took place they
would carry him away out of danger. I
think it almost certain that some of his party survive,
and are now with the blacks in the
extreme north. At all events, the expedition could
obtain some information as to his destiny, for the
very men who killed him would not hesitate to confess
it." Even with this, I should not have felt justified
in denouncing the system without more exact proof,
which can be but seldom obtained. But within the
last few days it has been officially and unmistakably
acknowledged, in the reports describing the death of
Lieutenant Hill, during a collision with the blacks on
the 22nd of May last. This is an extract from his
brother's report . As nearly as possible, I use Mr
Rothery's own words:—Lieutenant Cecil Hill and
three troopers rode up to my station (Pearl Creek) on
the evening of Monday, 21st May. Lieutenant Hill
informed me that he had come down from the
Mackenzie, having heard a report that a shep-
herd on my run had been murdered by the blacks.
I told him that an old shepherd had been
murdered about eight weeks previously, and till now
no police had been down. Mr. Hill and his troopers
camped at my station that night. The next morning
(Monday, the 22nd), Mr. Hill asked me if I had much
to do. I said no. He then asked me, as he did not
know the run, to show him where the blacks were
camped. I said I would, and we all left the station
together—Lieutenant Hill, myself, and three troopers.
A little before sunset, we came upon the camp, which
Lieutenant Hill and his troopers charged and dispersed;
one, I think, was shot. There is the system sanctioned
by the Queensland Government. A man is killed by
by blacks, and eight weeks afterwards a native camp is
charged, and as many are shot as the attacking party
can get at ."One I think, was shot," says the report.
I suspect there were a good many more. The
letter goes on to say:—We then camped for the night.
I wished to camp at a hut a mile off. Mr. Hill told me
that I need not be afraid of the blacks returning, as
they would not come near his boys. Mr. Hill and
myself did not sleep; the night was pitch dark. About
three o'clock the next morning (Tuesday, the 23rd), the
blacks came upon us. They were on us before one in
the camp was aware of it. Mr. Hill was the first to
jump on his feet with his revolver in his hand. He
staggered a few paces, and then fell flat on his face.
He died immediately, and his death is to be deeply
regretted; but the attack of the blacks was a legiti-
mate retaliation, carried out in the ordinary manner of
native warfare. Now for the sequel, as told by a para-
graph in the Sydney Herald of the 30th June:—The
following report from Acting Sub-Inspector O. C.
Oscar Pescher, N.M.P., dated 10th June, has been
handed to us for publication by the Commis-
sioner of Police. It is addressed to Mr. G. P. M.
Murray, I.N.P., Rockhampton : " I have the honour to
report that, on receipt of instructions contained in a
telegram bearing date the 26th May, ultimo, which
reached me on the 28th May, I proceeded at once to
Coomooboolano. I found acting sub-inspector Hill
having been killed by the blacks, and trooper Fred
being severely wounded and confined to bed at the
Pearl Creek station. On my way to Coomooboolano,
via Cooroorah, I met with numerous fresh tracks of
blacks, and followed them up towards Springton, where,
in the evening of 2nd July instant, a collision took
place between my detachment of native mounted police
and a mob of blacks; they dispersed in the Forty mile
Scrub, Lower Dawson-road I have the honour to
report that I visited the stations named in the margin—
Sanders, Mackenzie, Cooroorah, Springton, Tryphinia
Vale, Pearl Creek, Coomooboolano, Wooroona ; and that
the following collisions took place between the native
police under my command and the aboriginals,
namely:—June 4th. On the Sanders Run, near the
Expedition Range ; the blacks dispersed towards the
Comet Range. June 5th. On the foot of the Comet
Range; the blacks dispersed. June 7th. In a scrub
near the Tryphinia Vale Station; the blacks dispersed.
Sub-inspector Blakeney and three troopers arrived on
the 7th June, and sub-inspector Bailey with nine
troopers on the 9th of June instant, Early on the
morning of the 10th of June a collision took place in
the Expedition Range between the four detachments
of the native mounted police and a party of aboriginals,
when the latter were dispersed. I have the honour to
state that I consider the blacks to have left the district
for a time, but they will, no doubt, return to the Expe-
dition Range ; and in the Lower Dawson district they
are very numerous, and of a hostile disposi-
tion towards the Europeans. I consider it my
duty to submit to you the urgent necessity for imme-
diate and permanent police protection against the na-
tives of that district." It will be observed that there
are no inquiries as to what tribe, or portions of a tribe,
killed Mr. Hill. He found fresh tracks of blacks; they
are blacks, which seems quite sufficient for his purpose,
and he follows, finds "a" mob, attacks them, and they
disperse in the scrub. Three times within a week he
attacks and "disperses" parties of blacks, whether the
same or others he does not say, and probably did not
know. On the 10th there is another attack upon "a"
party of the aborigines, and they are driven out of the
country. You will observe that the number killed is
not mentioned. These are never counted, and are
always spoken of vaguely, for decency's sake ; and no
mention of wounded or prisoners, lt would be well
for the Queensland Government to inquire how
long the firing continued after the troopers disap-
peared in the scrub. How many women and
children were shot. How many children were dropped
in tho retreat and died of starvation, and how many, at
the end of a month's agony, are dragging on a miser-
able existence, as only black children can, waiting the
return of the tribe; when they may be again cut up
or, to use the favourite word of the humane Mr Oscar
Pescher— "dispersed.'' But the most extraordinary
part is the conclusion of the report, in which he
denounces the conduct of certain squatters, who will
persist in harbouring and protecting the blacks from
him and black bloodhounds. In even the very worst,
there are always a number of squatters who will re-
ceive any black who will come in and
be at peace. "When "bale wala" — not angry—is ex-
changed, all post offences are forgiven, and the
agreement is invariably kept on the part of the whites,
though not always on that of the blacks. There are
some among the whites cruel and most inveterate, but
I never met one of them who did approve of this pro-
ceeding. It kept them out of mischief, reduced the
number of enemies, and formed a nucleus for all
"coming in" when they would. It has remained for
an officer of the Queensland Government, with the ap-
parent approval of his superior officers and of the Go-
vernment, to denounce as enemies of the public weal
the men who, at their own expense and risk, are willing
to afford these wretched people one miserable chance of
escaping total extermination; the blacks have been
massacred cruelly and indiscriminately enough, but now
all, all must be given up to destruction.
There is no doubt that the occupation of the country
has year by year been made with more and more cruelty
to the blacks ; and that instead of every squatter doing
his utmost to quiet them and make them useful, every-
thing is now left to the wholesale butchery of the
native police. The Government may have been as
ignorant as people generally as to the real facts of the
case, but now that its enormity is shown in broad day-
light by this most extraordinary report of their own
officer, they can no longer shut their eyes to the neces-
sity of introducing a more humane system of occupa-
tion, if they are to be entrusted with the colonisation of
the enormous country placed under their rule by the
Imperial Government.—
Age, July 14.
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