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On this Page 2
Correspondence
To the Editor of the Perth Gazette & W.A Times
Sir,-I am desired by the Aboriginal
Education Committee to request the Pub-
lication of the following Report of a Pub-
lic Meeting recently held for the purpose
of considering the present unfair appr-

priationof the Government Educational

Grant.

*- Your ohedient servant,

Chum-Chum,

Secretary.

Paper Bark Lodge, ")
Tea Tree Swamp, 5th Aug., '69. J

A Meeting of the aboriginal inhabitants of
the Colony was held at Blackboy Plain at the
date of the last full moon, to consider the man
<~ ner in which the Educational grant is expended

by the Government.

Present-Saucy Bill alias " Cadgent," Fre-
mantle Tom, Spindle Shanks, Ugly Mug, Don
Quixote, Chum-Chum, and other important
colored gentlemen, including delegates from the
various country tribes.

It was proposed by Ugly Mug, and seconded
by Spindle Shanks, that Fremantle Tom take
the Chair, and that Chum-Chum act as Secre-
tary. Carried with acclamation.

Fremantle Tom thanked the meeting for the
honor they had conferred upon him, but humor-
ously pointed out that no Chairs had been pro-
vided, and that therefore he would be compelled
to use a blackboy instead. As however, he did
not wish to be called a black-boy-man he would
suggest that for the time being the blackboy
upon which he had squatted should be con-
sidered a chair, in order that he might claim
the title of Chairman. The meeting having
expressed its approval, the Secretary was di-
rected to record on the minutes that a black-
boy was a chair, and the Chairman then ad-
dressed the meeting as follows :

"Gentlemen and Ladies" (it should have
been stated above that large numbers of women
and children attended the meeting) " you are
all aware that the important question which
you have been called together to consider is
the subject of National Education in this
Colony, and the shameful injustice of the Go-
vernment in depriving us ot our fair share of
the Educational Grant. Now ladies and gen-
tlemen you all of you smoke and drink, (some
of you I am sorry to say indulge too freely in
these habits) and you all eat bread and drink
tea, and fire away powder and shot, and thus
contribute to the general revenue of the Colony
aud yet do not receive a share of the Educa-
tional Grant. But ladies and gentlemen, we
have determined to put a stop to such an ini-
quitous arrangement, and we propose to pre-
sent to the Legislative Council on the subject,
though as we are not represented in the Coun-
cil we do not expect much consideration from
that august body. If however this should
prove unavailing we will submit our petition to
His Sable Highness the King of the Cannibal
Islands, -and then let the white people look out
for squalls. The petition to the Council will
be sent round at once, and all who do not sign
it will incur the severe displeasure of thepower
iul men who have prepared it. Of course the
majority of you cannot write, and probably care
very little about Education, but your names
can be written for you, and if any of you have
got fiiends in the country who can't write and
who care a very little about Education, you can
gat their names written down too, if you think
they wouldn't object. And those men who are
married and have got families must get their
Avives and families to add thoir names, and I
need not remind you that theie are a number
of half-castes about-chaps who though they do
not belong to our race, are indifferent as to what
.cause they support, and you will be doing good
sei vice it you will induce them to give their
signatures, as they will help to s will up the
list and make it look imposing. Bear in mind
?our national motto "the end justifies the
means," and if you are compelled to have re-
course to a little trickery, you will have the
satisfaction of knowing that it was employed
for a good end.

Spindle-Shanks then rose and said-" I claim
for the aborigines of this Colony liberty of con
s jience and freedom of education : bjr liberty of
conscience I do not mean that you should all
have the right to think and act for yourselves,
such libeity would be dangerous jto your very
existence ; in fact it is this universal liberty of
conscience in the National Schools that we
find lault with. What I mean by the term is
that certain highly endowed men who are ap-
pointed to guide you should be perfectly uncon-
trolled by a Government devoid of all sympathy
with you. Freedom of conscience thus qualified
is the fundamental principal upon which the
whole fabric of our eherished superstitions and
ancient traditions íests, and I maintain that
they are entitled to a large share of the educa-
tional grant to enable us to inculcate this im-
portant truth" (sime one here hinted that in
order to exasperate the meeting and kindle a
more intense hatred of the wlutes, and thus
enlist those present with the views of the
speaker, it would, be as well to draw attention
to the grievous wrongs received by the natives
in the early days of the colony at the battle of
Pinjarrah and on other occasions ; but Spindle
Shanks had the ¿good ""sense to observe that
these matters were not rêvaient to the question
and that propably the wrongs referred to were
but a retaliation for their own misdeeds.) The
speaker went on to say-" We have as you all
know many time honored customs, supersti-
tions, and traditions handed down to us by our
forefathers ; now we know that no attempt is
made in the National Schools to disprove these
superstitions, &c, bul we who are appointed to
exeieise your consciences know that the en-
lightenment of your minds will have the effect of
inducing you to relinquish your belief in them,
and therefore we say you must have nothing to
do with such schools. We will mete out to you
the exact amount of enlightenment that is
good for you, and you must be contented
with that. Besides it must be obvious to you
that if you send jour children to the white peo-
ple's schools, the Government are not at all
likely to sanction a separate grant for a native
school. Before resuming my black-boy there is
one other point to which I would call your at-
tention, and that is the use of the term
"niggers" as ap^dd to us by the. whites j I
object to the term : the white people do not like
to be called " pale faces" and why should they
call us "niggers," it isa name evidently used in
deiision, and is neither polite nor euphonious."

Saucy Bill Esquire alias " Cadgent" rose and
said-" Though not entitled like the previous
speakers to dictate what line of thought the
multitude should follow, I wish to add some re-
marks to wliat has already been said, I deal
largely in clothes-props and dry boughs, and
therefore can lay claim to the title of merchant,
and as there are now many of my rank amongst
you^I hope I shall be granted a patient hearing.
The Colonial Secretary has been expressing his
opinion pretty freely on the subject of our
contemplated petition, but I consider he is a
humbug. It was all very well for him to
make a lot ofstatememts, but he should havo

adhered to facts" (someone here hinted that,
perhaps what the Colonial Secretary had stated*1
was fact, but the speaker whispered to him not
to push the enquiry too far, as it was very im
postant to induce the meeting to believe that
Mr. Barlee was entirely wrong, and in order to
do this he would point out one or two trifling
mistakes made by .the Honorable Gentleman,
and then the meeting would readily believe
that that gentleman knew nothing of what he
had been talking about). The speaker then
drew attention to a number of statements made
»y the Colonial Secretary, the truth of which he
denied in toto; and he then made contrary
statements, which because of his superior ve-
racity were received by the meeting with shouts
of approbation, and the speaker sat down amid
cries of " Down with the Colonial Secretary, and
up with Saucy Bill."

Don Quixote then addressed the meeting and
a 7"*imve ktely been released from Eottnest
and therefore I have had manyopportunities of
witnessing the goings on of the Government.
V» course after having been kept a captive on
3'r»retched Island for so long a time, I have
5*f?taUy imbibed an abhorrence of every insti
'*&*of wUich the wiiifce p^pfe have the
* W"1^" J object to associating with the

whites in any way, and of course I will not send
my children to a white school. (Along harangue
here followed, which, as the Secretary did not
write short-hand he could not take down.)

Many humorous and witty speeches then fol-
lowed, but the Secretary got sleepy and dosed
off, but was awoke by a burst of laughter pro-
voked by some quaint remarks of Saucy Bill's,
with reference to a road having been made up
to the white people's rifle range, while an ap-
plication for a road to the native corrobbory
ground at Monger's Lake had been refused.

At this point of the proceedings there was
such an overflow of that wifc for which the abo-

riginal race is so remarkable, that many of the
members present were positively in danger of
cracking their sides with laughter, and it was
therefore thought better to postpone any fur-
ther discussion on the subject, and the Meeting
was accordingly adjourned until the receipt of
a reply from the Council to the Memorial now
being signed.

It should here be stated that as some of the
above-mentioned speakers have only a very
limited knowledge of. the English language,
their speeches were revised and corrected for
publication by Don Quixote, whose learning
and abilities have gained him a world-wide
reputation.

$