aide, and their huts burned, even in cold wet weather.
The records of the Police Office will shew that they have been driven off
the Park lands, or those belonging to Government, or at least that they
have been brought up and punished for cutting wood from the trees there.
What are they to do, when there is not a stick or a tree within miles of
Adelaide that they can legally take?]
[Note 43: I have known repeated instances of natives in Adelaide
being bitten severely by savage dogs rushing out at them from the
yards of their owners, as they were peaceably passing along the street. On
the other hand I have known a native imprisoned for throwing his waddy at,
and injuring a pig, which was eating a melon he had laid down for a moment
in the street, and when the pig ought not to have been in the street at
all. In February 1842, a dog belonging to a native was shot by order of
Mr. Gouger, the then Colonial Secretary, and the owner as soon as he
became aware of the circumstance, speared his wife for not taking better
care of it, although she could not possibly have helped the occurrence. If
natives then revenge so severely such apparently trivial offences among
themselves, can we wonder that they should sometimes retaliate upon us
for more aggravated ones.]
[Note 44: The following are extracts from an address to a jury, when
trying some aboriginal natives, by Judge Willis. They at least shew some
of the BLESSINGS the Aborigines experience from being made British
subjects, and placed under British laws:--"I have, on a recent occasion,
stated my opinion, which I still entertain, that the proprietor of a run,
or, in other words, one who holds a lease or license from the Crown to
depasture certain Crown lands, may take all lawful means to prevent either
natives or others from entering or remaining upon it." "The aboriginals of
Van Diemen's Land were strictly commanded, by Governor Arthur's
proclamation of the 15th of April 1828 (a proclamation of which His
Majesty King George the Fourth, through the Right honourable the then
Secretary of State, by a dispatch of the 2nd of February, 1829, under the
circumstances, signified his approval,) "to retire and depart from, and
for no reason, and no pretence, save as therein provided, (viz.
travelling annually to the sea coast in quest of shellfish, under certain
regulations,) to re-enter the settled districts of Van Diemen's Land, or
any portions of land cultivated and occupied by any
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