NATIVES OF QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA - Queensland is the latest of England's Australian colonies, having been separated from New South Wales in 1859. Formerly it was a penal settlement, a dumping-ground for incorrigible ruffians, who nevertheless were of great value in cultivating the land and erecting the public buildings of the capital of Queensland, Brisbane. This illustration shows us some of the Australian natives living in the interior, but who occasionally come down to the coast for trading purposes. As has been said elsewhere, in describing Sydney, these Aborigines are a wretched race. Like most savages, they are fond of liquor, and were it not for strict laws prohibiting the sale to them of intoxicating drinks, they would doubtless soon become exterminated through their own excesses. Originally these natives, like the Maoris of New Zealand, were probably cannibals. The latter were in the habit of eating human flesh as late as 1814, when the missionaries first visited New Zealand. Many of these natives tattoo themselves, the number and style of this decoration indicating their rank. The sad fact impresses itself upon the traveller as he looks upon these millions of Aborigines in the South Pacific, that little can be done to improve them. They are doomed. If left alone, and to the gradual development of centuries, they might perhaps evolve themselves into a higher order of humanity. But like the North American Indians, they are disappearing rapidly before a new and sturdier race, and the islands and continents of the great southern ocean will soon be peopled only by their conquerors. |
