THE CORANDERRK ABORIGINAL STATION. - (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) - 1 Sep 1876 (original) (raw)

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Fri 1 Sep 1876 - The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)
Page 7 - THE CORANDERRK ABORIGINAL STATION.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

I have already mentioned the descriptions

and quantities of the necessaries that are

regularly supplied to the residente on the

station, but the enumeration by no means

exhausted the list of the comforts and bene-

fits which they enjoy. For one thing, their

supply of butcher's meat is not as a general

thing confined within the regulation limit of

6lb. per week to each person over seven, and

3lb. each for children. When there are cattle

on the station fit to kill for food, two are

killed every week, and the whole of the meat

is served out, even though it should con-

siderably exceed the proper quantity. If the

total ration is 350lb., and the beast weighs

500lb. or more, they get it all. Again, besides

what vegetables and fruit the blacks grow for

themselves in their private gardens, they are

permitted free access to the general garden,

vineyard, and orchard, and can help them

selves to a cabbage or cauliflower whenever

they like, and also to grapes and gooseberries,

plums and cherries, in their seasons. Then

they have skins and other trophies of the chase

to sell for money, and fish and game to vary

their own diet. They have also eggs to sell,

and plaited-straw mats and baskets, skin rugs,

&c., all of which the women manufacture

not only with much skill and dexterity, but

also with good taste. For every day's work

that a man does—and the day's work ave-

rages only five hours—he receives 1s., but the

men do not work regularly, and their earn-

ings come to only £3 or £3 10s. per man per

quarter. Some save money out of this, but

most of them spend it—sometimes in antici-

pation. The men have nearly all guns, and

they spend money on powder and shot, and

on extra articles of clothing or ornament.

Many of them also possess horses for

their own use and pleaeure, which are per-

mitted to run upon the station, and some

portion of their earnings is spent on

saddles and bridles, whips and spurs.

Their dealings are chiefly with hawkers

at present, but it is in contemplation

to establish a little store on the station,

that the blacks may have their wants

supplied at cost price, and that the danger of

drink being surreptitiously introduced by

visiting dealers may be obviated. The women

swap away their eggs and other things to the

pedlars for articles of dress and ornament,

and for pictures out of old fashion books and

"Galaxy Galleries of British Beauties," or

from the 'Graphic or British Workman', to

adorn their walls withal. But their chief ob-

jects of desire are looking-glasses, with

which they have nearly all supplied them-

selves, and photographic representations of

their own and their children's countenances.

My inspection of the station cottages was

during the pleasant hours between 11 a.m.

and noon, when there is naturally little to do

beyond watching the dinner in process of

cooking, worshipping the babies, and chat-

ting with visiting neighbours. At this time

there was to be seen in every cottage a

blazing wood fire, suggestive of gross extra-

vagance to an observer who had to pay for

his firing, and two camp ovens hung over

every fire, while there waa a steaming kettle

on the hob and a well-laid table awaiting

the results of the cooking operations in pro-

gress and the arrival of the expected

husbands. So much for their condition as

regards material comforts and luxuries.

The religious affairs of the inhabitants of

Coranderrk are managed on somewhat mixed

principles. The schoolmaster on the station

reads the Church of England service to them

twice on every Sunday ; a Presbyterian clergy,

man from Lillydale, Mr. Mackie, performs

what marrying and baptizing they may require;

and they sing Moody and Sankey hymns

about Jerusalem and other sacred subjects

to such tunes as "Ring the Bell Watchman,"

"Rise up, William Ridley," and "Off she

goes to Merrimichie." In regard to their

secular education I can speak with more

fulness and definiteness. Their instructors,

Mr, and Mrs. Deans, are trained and accom-

plished teachers, and their hearts seem to be

in their work. When I visited the school,

which is commodious, well lighted and ven-

tilated, and in all respects quite suitable for

the use to which it is put, there were 24

pupils under instruction in the senior

class, and about a dozen in the infant

class. All were perfectly clean and neatly

dressed. I had previously been informed

that quite a different state of affairs pre-

vailed, and was careful to find out the truth

of the matter. Well, during my half-hour's

visit there was not a single manifestation of

the uneasiness which is known to be pro-

duced in children by certain causes, nor any

of that digital examination so often to be

seen in state schools and other tolerably

well-regulated establishments. The children

indeed seemed to be extra clean. Their

manner, too, was cheerful and bright, as

that of children under a discipline

that was neither harsh nor oppressive,

and I found their school attainments

to be of a highly respectable kind.

Some of the boys did sums in compound

multiplication readily and correctly, and one

girl, a fall-blooded black, of 13 or so, read

out a passage about the Caribbean Sea, at

sight, not only correctly, but also with proper

pronunciation and emphasis. In their know-

ledge of the water-sheds of Northern Asia some

of them showed themselves to be greatly my

superior, and others pointed out and

named, on the map, the various capitals

of Europe in a manner that would

have shamed many eminent members of

Parliament. I asked a little girl to point out

Coranderrk on the map of Victoria, which,

however, she was unable to do, because it

was not there. It had already been oblite-

rated by much friction of whitey-brown

fingers. The girls sing exceedingly well,

with clear, and rather pleasant voices, keep-

ing excellent time, and throwing into their

performances a good deal of expression.

They sing together in the school-room every

evening from 7 to half-past, and at the Sun-

day services they form a sufficiently effective

choir. Their musical education is somewhat

hindered by the want of an instrument to

accompany and mark time for their voices,

and I would here take the liberty to in-

terpose the remark, that if any kindly dis-

posed reader of these lines has a deposed

piano or harmonium in his lumber room, he

could not do better with it than to have it

tuned up and send it as a present to the

In complexion and general appearance

the young people vary very widely.

Some are unmistakably full-blooded blacks,

and are so dark-skinned that it might

almost be said that charcoal would

make a white mark on them. Others are

so fair that one wonders where the drop

of black blood which obtained for them ad-

mission to the station lies hidden. It cer-

tainly does not show itself in their epidermis.

Some have curled and others straight hair.

One pretty little girl has light brown tresses

and steel-blue eyes. Others are pretty

brunettes, with nothing black about them ex-

cept the whites of their eyes, which are yellow.

All except the little girl already mentioned

have dark brown or black eyes, large and

well set, of which a few pairs are tender and

languishing, but by far the larger number

are bright and sparkling. The features of

some of them are shapely and refined, their

hands and feet small and delicate. Their

teeth are in nearly every instance perfectly

regular, and of bewildering purity of colour.

There are three or four among them who, if

tbey were tastefully dressed in the mode of

the day, and seated in the front row of an

opera box with red camellias in their hair,

would attract much admiring observation.

From whom these poor children have derived

their good looks cannot be learned with any

degree of precision, but may be partly sur-

mised in a general way. It is a particularly

wise Coranderrk pupil that knows its own

father. But if there are well-to do men in

our community who know themselves to be

their fathers, and yet permit them to

remain where they are, and face a

future which is at least doubtful, and

is too likely to prove disastrous, they are not

only doing a cruel and wicked thing, but are

at the same time turning away a blessing

from their own doors. Some of these girls,

intelligent, handsome, and affectionate, are

formed by nature to be the delight of happy

and well-regulated homes if only they had fair

play, and those upon whom they have claims,

and who deny those claims, whether through

indifference, or greed, or fear of the censure

of the conventional, incur a most grave

One of the most potential of educational

agents is example, and this is true in a

very special manner in regard to the up-

bringing of children who have savage blood

in their veins. Young people of this descrip-

tion are intensely imitative, and it is essen-

tial to their well-doing that they should

have constantly before their eyes models

worthy of imitation. In this respect the

Coranderrk children and youths are parti-

cularly fortunate. Mr. Halliday, the super-

intendent of the station, was specially

selected by the board for his fitness for the

situation. When the board required a man

for the place, they requested the chief com-

missioner of police to select a suitable man

from the superior non-commissioned ranks

of the force, and he named Mr. Hal-

liday, then filling the responsible post of

senior sergeant at the Richmond depot,

He accepted the office of superintendent, and

brought to the discharge of his new duties

long official experience and that capacity for

governing which only the wise practice of

authority can confer. By nature, too, he is

well fitted for the place he now fills, being no

less kind and gentle than he can be firm and

determined when occasion arises for the exhi-

bition of such qualities. Without being im-

properly personal, I may add that the ladies

of the superintendent's family are well calcu-

lated to exercise a refining influence over the

native women, young and old. The dress

and manners of the young ladies are

eagerly copied and imitated by the

station girls. The consequence is that

an attention to personal cleanliness and

neatness that was not known among them

before is now observable, while in their

manners they have become much more gentle

and refined. It in true that the girls have

not much choice in the way of dress, but, so

far as their limited resources will admit, they

have smartened themselves up, and it is well

known that well-favoured girls can make a

bit of ribbon or a flower go a long

way towards setting off their attrac-

tions. In the infant school there is

to be found an illustration of the power of

example which is comic as well as instruc-

tive. The teacher has a pretty flaxen-haired

and pure-complexioned girl of her own of

about four years of age, who accompanies her

mother to school, and participates in the in-

struction there given, only sitting a little apart

from her class-mates in assertion of her supe-

riority as an Anglo-Saxon child without any ad-

mixture of blood whatever. When she first ap-

peared on the scene her flaxen forelocks were

cut short, in what is vulgarly called poodle

dog fashion, and incontinently her dusky

schoolfellows proceeded to mutilate their

own hair in imitation of her mode. Then, to

achieve the singularity at which leaders of

fashion always aim, she permitted her hair

to grow and carefully parted it aside, when

behold, her humble rivals again followed

suit, and the result is that the Coranderrk

girls are at present in a transition condition

as regards their hair which is more whimsical

than graceful. To some readers these parti-

culars may seem to lack importance, but I

think they go a long way towards proving

that it is of the highest importance to sur-

round young people, whose intellects are ex-

panding and whose manners are being

formed, with people from whom they can

learn nothing but what will be for their good.

The girl in whose nature there is no latent

spark of vanity is either more or less than

human, and such monsters are scarce. For

my own part, I must say that I have never

encountered a single specimen of the class, if

there exists such a class. Female vanity is

therefore a thing that cannot be put aside or

ignored in any wise or humane educa-

tional system, but is rather one that

should be properly directed, and perhaps

restrained in some degree. It takes what is

probably its most harmless direction when it

induces habits of personal cleanliness and a

reasonable love of dress, and it therefore

seems to me that the change in the manners

and customs of the Coranderrk young people

which recent changes in the management of

the station have brought about are of an

altogether salutory description.

Doubts have arisen as to whether Coran

derrk is a suitable or healthy place of resi-

dence for the people who now occupy it. On

this point I am unable to offer an opinion

that would have any value. For my own

part, I should have no objection to live there ;

but it is possible that its climate is in-

jurious to people having lungs that are con-

genitally weak, and liable to the attacks of

disease. The place lies high, and being sur-

rounded by mountain ranges it has a very

high average rainfall, and it may be that the

exhalations from its river flats, which are

frequently drowned in water, may be

inimical to health. On this subject I have

nothing to say beyond what I have just said.

In some other respects I am better able to

pronounce upon the suitability of the site.

For one thing, it is too near centres of white

population. Within a few miles there are

public-houses, and wine shops, at which it is

generally understood that spirits also can be

purchased if there is money to pay the cost.

At the same time it is only fair to mention

that there is no evidence whatever that the

Coranderrk people are too fond of drink. The

only member of the community that I saw

in any way under the influence of liquor was

a full-blooded white woman. On the day of

the inquiry at Healesville, 50 of the blacks

and half-castes were lounging about the

village all day, and not one of them

had anything whatever to drink of an

intoxicating nature, so far as I could see or

find out. Mr. Halliday never saw one of

them drunk, or even partially so, since he

took charge in March last, save one man and

his wife, on one occasion, when an ill-condi-

tioned white lad brought them a bottle of

gin. The reports about their drinking

propensities that have obtained cur-

rency are either grossly exaggerated or

entirely without foundation. A substan-

tial objection to the Coranderrk site is

that it is inconveniently remote from

medical skill. The nearest surgeon is at

Lilydale, 15 miles away, and he is not always

to be found when wanted. The nearer

village of Healesville is too small and poor

to support a doctor, and out of those untoward

circumstances there has grown the most

fruitful cause of complaint against the

management of the station. The super-

intendent has a well-supplied medicine

chest, and instructions for the use of

its contents, and he does the best he

can, but when emergencies arise he is

course nearly helpless. Oddly enough, the

natives have an insatiable appetite for physic

and are constantly applying for doses ; and

Mr. Halliday gratifies them so far as his

sense of duty will permit with Epsom salts

and Cockle's pills. One extremely able

bodied black is constantly clamouring for

medicine, and bitterly complaining that

no doctor is fetched to him ; but

inasmuch as he takes several hours'

exercise every day with 8lb. quoits, at a

22 yards range, it is considered that his case

is not urgent, and he is permitted to go on

grumbling from week to week, and pitching

The present management at Coranderrk is

patriarchal in the best sense of the word.

Mr. Halliday and the lady members of his

family are not the despots or taskmasters

of the blacks, but their kindly guides,

philosophers, and friends. The grown men

and women on the station are continually

coming to the superintendent's house on one

errand or another, and these chiefly of a most

frivolous kind. The children swarm over the

private garden, and cannot be kept out of the

kitchen. When Mrs. Halliday and her step-

daughters go out for a walk, the station

girls follow them, and will not be denied

the privilege. The girls are eager to be

taught sewing, knitting, crochet, and

other feminine occupations of like cha-

racter, and Mrs. Halliday spends some part

of every day in teaching them, which is a

pleasant enough way of occupying her time,

since the girls are apt to learn. A defect in

the present arrangements is that Mrs. Halli-

day has no official position in the establish-

ment, and no power beyond what her

personal influence confers. If she were

the properly-appointed and recognised ma-

tron of the establishment, her usefulness

would be greatly increased, to the benefit of

all concerned. Among the other white

attachés of the station is Mr. Burgess,

manager of the hop gardens. He is so far

qualified for his post that he knows nearly

all that there is to be known about hop

culture, having been engaged in it all his life

—in Kent and Sussex first, and subsequently

in Gipps Land, and for the past few years at

Coranderrk. He is not, however, popular

with the blacks, and there are frequent dis-

putes between him and them which a little

tact on his side might, perhaps, be effec-

tual to prevent. The other employés on the

establishment not already mentioned are the

farm manager, of whom I saw nothing

(he was away in the bush at the

time of my visit, getting hop-poles),

and a most important and useful per-

sonage known as Mrs. Briggs. This lady

is a half-caste Tasmanian, of about 50 years

or a little more, and is a most resolute and

purposelike person. She is matron of the

establishment, on a salary of 10s. a week, and

manages the affairs of the children and

young people "in school" with the utmost

vigilance and much success. She is their

cook and laundress, and general monitor

and gouvernante. Not much can go on

among them without her knowing of it,

but the control she exercises is all for her

subjects' good. She is also the accoucheuse in

ordinary of the establishment, the general

nurse in sickness, and a handy and vigorous

all-round administrator. Coranderrk could

not be what it is without Mrs. Briggs. On

the night I spent at the station an addition

was made to its population with her assist-

ance, and I understand that the new arrival

is to be admitted within the pale of the Pres-

byterian Church by the name of "Argus," in

commemoration of my visit.