case, that of the Western Port District, the assistant protector has
urged that this should be the case; but I have not felt myself
sufficiently convinced of the policy or expediency of such measure to
bring it under his Excellency's notice."]

I have previously shewn, that from the injuries the natives sustain at
our hands, in a deprivation of their usual means of subsistence, and a
banishment from their homes and possessions, there is at present no
alternative for them but to remain the abject and degraded creatures they
are, begging about from house to house, or from station to station, to
procure food, insulted and despised by all, and occasionally tempted or
driven to commit crimes for which a fearful penalty is enacted, if
brought home to them. I have given instances of the extent to which the
evils resulting from the anomalous state of our relations with them are
aggravated by the kind of feeling which circumstances engender on the
part of the Colonists towards them. I have pointed out the tendency of
their own habits and customs, to prevent them from rising in the scale of
improvement, until we can acquire an influence sufficient to counteract
these practices; and I have shewn that thus situated, oppressed,
helpless, and starving, we cannot expect they should make much progress
in civilization, or pay great regard to our instructions, when they see
that we do not practice what we recommend, and that we have one law for
ourselves and another for them. The good results that have been produced
when an opposite and more liberal system has been adopted (limited as
that system was) has also been stated. It is only fair to assume,
therefore, that these beneficial effects may be expected to accrue in an
increasing ratio in proportion to our liberality and humanity.

My own conviction is, that by adopting the system I recommend, an almost
unlimited influence might be acquired over the native population. I
believe that the supplying them with food would gradually bring about the
abandonment of their wandering habits, in proportion to the frequency of
the issue, that the longer they were thus dependent upon us for their
resources, the more binding our authority would be; that when they no
longer required their children to assist them in the chase or in war,
they would willingly allow them to remain at our schools; that by only
supplying food to natives in their own districts they would, in some
measure, be weaned from the