QSA847276 1887 Letter from Gilbert White to Bishop Webber 16 December, Colonial Secretarys Office In Letters, In letter 88/4237, DR78397

Bishop Webber

(Official Stamp: COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, QUEENSLAND 9 [JAN ?] 88 O.287.1)

Herberton Dec 16th 1887

My dear Lord Bishop

In accordance with a suggestion of your lordship's I proceed to offer some account of the present state of the relations between the blacks & the white settlers in this neighbourhood so far as it has come under my personal observation in the course of my pastoral visitations. For many months past there has been very great friction between the blacks and the settlers on the scrub lands, who have made many a quite unsuccessful appeals to the Gov. for protection. From the settlers point of view it seems very hard that they should be encouraged to invest all their little capital in the land and that then no protection for property should be given by the Government. To begin with the settlers have to contend against great natural difficulties. The scrub land which is closely & heavily timbered is very hard to clear & the stumps do not rot for five years making it almost impossible to plough. The seasons are very uncertain. The crops often spoiled by excessive rain. When the corn is growing it is threatened by caterpillars & grubs & when it is ripe it attracts perfect clouds of white cockatoos besides rats & wallabies, who find perfectly safe shelter in the adjacent scrub & attack the corn directly it is left unguarded. In addition there was this year a sharp frost which killed the bananas, pawpaws & young corn. These difficulties are enough to tax

not to say overtaxed the full strength of the selector who is usually without any capital beyond his house tools & stock. But these things he could bear if it were not for the blacks. They lurk in the scrub quite unseen and are forever watching him. When the corn & potatoes are ripe they carry them off. If he leaves the house for half an hour they break open the door & carry away his tools, gun, flour and seed corn. One man, Williams, living within half a mile of the township of Carrington told me that he had been entirely cleared out three times. In another case they stole the hot bread out of the oven in wh. a woman was baking & took the flour bag too. Another man Moran, not much more than a mile from Carrington had to put all his goods on a wheelbarrow & take them with him to his work. Scarcely a week passes without these outrages, full accounts of wh. may be found in the local papers & the settlers are disheartened. Their selections & the others are simply holding on in hope of getting their certificate wh. will enable them to leave the land & yet own it if it should become valuable at a future time. Some time ago

Bishop Webber

{Official Stamp: COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, QUEENSLAND 0.287.1 9 JAN 88}

a patrol of black troopers came up & stayed a week or so but they did not catch sight of a native & did little or no good.

Then there comes the black's point of view & it is dificult not to feel sympathy with them. They have been driven from their natural resorts for game & food, the game killed or driven away, the good trees felled. They are hungry and can see nothing wrong in satisfying their hunger from the food of those who have deprived them of theirs. They restrict themselves to stealing & housebreaking. I have not heard of a single authentic instance of assault by wild blacks in this neighbourhood during the seven months I have been here. They do not dare to work for any well disposed settler for fear of being shot by an aggrieved neighbour, so they keep to the scrub & plunder all. The result must soon be a murder by the blacks and a war of revenge and extermination on the part of the settlers who have given up all hope of Government protection. There seems to be only one remedy besides extermination, and it was suggested to me by one of the oldest settlers, who said he was sure it would succeed. First proclaim clearly to all the blacks that no harm should be

done to them so long as they did no harm. Secondly let each settler have a small Government grant for each family of blacks he maintains. By growing more sweet potatoes & giving them a poor beast now & then he could easily keep two or three families, & the settlers need exactly the labour that the blacks can give in clearing and burning the land, attending to the cattle etc. If this could only be done the settlers would be relieved from a constant anxiety and suspense & have a cheap labour wh. would make their land pay. Of course the settler would have to make the head of each family understand "no work no food" but this is not a difficult lesson to teach when once the blacks understand that the arrangement is to be a permanent one. I am told that this has been done in other parts of Australia with the best results. Blacks in this civilised state do not increase but rather diminish in numbers. The present state of things is an outrage on both common sense & justice. If your lordship can bring the facts before those in authority or secure some effectual remedy it will be a good day both for blacks & settlers.

Yr lordship's obedient servant (signed) Gilbert White M.A. Incumbent of Herberton