to make a savage comprehend. I
attended one quarter-sessions at which a number of natives were tried on
a great variety of charges. Several of them were induced to plead guilty,
and on this admission of their having committed the crime sentence was
pronounced upon them. But when others denied their guilt, and found that
this denial produced no corresponding result in their favour, whilst at
the same time they were not permitted to bring forward other natives to
deny it also, and to explain the matter for them, they became perfectly
confounded. I was subsequently applied to by several intelligent natives
to explain this mystery to them, but I failed in giving such an
explanation as would satisfy them.

19. The natives being ignorant of our laws, of the forms of our courts of
justice, of the language in which the proceedings are conducted, and the
sentence pronounced upon them, it would appear that but a very imperfect
protection is afforded them by having present in the court merely an
interpreter (very often an ignorant man) who knows nothing of legal
proceedings and can be but very imperfectly acquainted with the native
language: it must also be borne in mind that the natives are not tried by
a jury of their peers, but by a jury having interests directly opposed to
their own, and who can scarcely avoid being in some degree prejudiced
against native offenders. From these considerations I would suggest that
it should be made binding upon the local government in all instances (or
at least in such instances as affect life) to provide a counsel to defend
native prisoners.

20. Some other principal preventives to the civilization of the
aborigines, in addition to those I have already stated, are:

1. The existence of an uncertain and irregular demand for their labour:
thus they may have one day sufficient opportunity afforded them for the
exertion of their industry, whilst the next day their services are not
required, so that they are compelled once more to have recourse to their
former irregular and wandering habits.

2. Their generally receiving a very inadequate reward for the services
they render; this, combined with their natural fondness for the bush,
induces them to prefer that mode of subsistence which, whilst it is
infinitely more agreeable and less laborious, procures for them nearly as
great a reward as living with white people.

3. Their not being taught that different values are attached to different
degre