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Crown Commissioner’s Office,
Mount Macedon 13th. August 1849

Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge your Circular of
the 17th. July containing Queries required for the information of the
Committee of the Legislative Council on the state of the Aboriginal Inhabi-
=tants of this Colony and more especially with regard to the success of the
present Protectorate System in Port Phillip, and in reply beg to say that

1st. I have had opportunities during the last ten years of
observing the working of the Protectorate

2nd. In my opinion it has not been effectual.

3rd. I attribute the result in the first place to the difficulty
attending the carrying out my plan for ameliorating the condition of the
Aborigines, owing to their wandering habits, and the tenacity with which
they adhere to their old Customs, also the want of sufficient force at the
disposal of the Assistant Protectors to enforce any regulations that might
have been adopted to make them work, and give up their barbarous
Superstitions which must necessarily interfere with anything like a
system

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system, and, thirdly, in some instances to the Officers not
being qualified for such a charge.

4th. I think that the same amount of money
might be more efficiently supplied towards the same objects

5th. At Mr. Assistant Protector Parker’s Establishment
on the River Loddon, one Boy has been brought up with his
family and has to a certain extent adopted the habits of
civilized life; there are also a few other instances in this
District, both at the Loddon Establishment and on private
stations, of Natives having partially given up their habits,
and made themselves useful as Shepherds, Stockmen, and
Sheep-washers.

6th. I know of no instances in which they have em-
braced the belief, or practice of Christianity, with the exception of
attending prayers at the Aboriginal Establishments, but
it is very doubtful whether they understand them.

7th. In my opinion the condition of the Aborigines
has much altered during the last ten years, but has not
generally improved.

8th. Although they may have gained some know-
=ledge of English customs and Laws, and have been better
fed and clothed than when they entirely depended on their
own resources for food:- on the other hand many of them have
acquired vices which more than counterbalance any benefits
they may have received from mixing with the white population:-
In the Town and neighbourhood of Melbourne, drinking to excess
has become very general among them, and both in Town and
Country disease has increased, and their numbers have con-
=siderably diminished.

It is now late in the day to form any system
likely to improve the condition of the Aborigines, for the whole of this
District is more or less occupied by Settlers, and permitting the
Natives to mix with the Hut-keepers and Shepherds, is not likely either
to improve their morals or condition: the most successful attempt
that has been made to improve their mode of life was the
formation of the Native Mounted Police Corps, and I would sug-
=gest an increase of this force and the establishment of a
School at the Head Quarters, and a Law being passed to enable
the