52 ~ ONE HUMAN FAMILY


civilization as a unilinear process with races able to ascend or descend a graduated scale. The European was … the ‘fittest to survive’ … [The Aboriginal] was doomed to die out according to a ‘natural law’, like the dodo and the dinosaur. This theory, supported by the facts at hand [i.e. that Aboriginal folk were dying out from ill-treatment and disease—CW] continued to be quoted until well into the twentieth century when it was noticed that the dark-skinned race was multiplying. Until that time it could be used to justify neglect and murder.”


From the book’s transcript of an interrogation of a policeman during a Royal Commission of Inquiry in 1861 (p. 83), we read concerning the use of force against tribal Aboriginals:


“‘And if we did not punish the blacks they would look upon it as a confession of weakness?’


‘Yes, that is exactly my opinion.’


‘It is a question as to which is the strongest race—if we submit to them they would despise us for it?’


‘Yes …’”


The influence of evolutionary thinking can also be seen in another excerpt from Aborigines in White Australia, on page 100. The writer quoted, also author of an 1888 book, is justifying the killing of the native population in the State of Victoria. He writes:


“As to the ethics of the question, there can be drawn no final conclusion.”


He says that this is because it is


“a question of temperament; to the sentimental it is undoubtedly an iniquity; to the practical it represents a distinct step in human progress, involving the sacrifice of a few thousands of an inferior race. … But the fact is that mankind, as a race, cannot choose to act solely as moral beings. They are governed by animal laws which urge them blindly forward upon tracks they scarce can choose for themselves.”


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