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34 THE ABORIGINES OP AUSTRALIA. to Bathurst to re-establish the school there. The Bev. Mr. Cartwright mixed the boys with the white boys in the school. They worked well together, but a foolish apprehension that the black children com municated disease to the whites caused its discontinuance. The Bev. Mr. Threlkeld laboured in Lake Macquarie, a beautiful sheet of water and large grant of land having been set apart for them, but its proximity to Newcastle, and gradual dying out of the blacks, extinguished the mission. The Church Missionary Society, at the instigation of the Bev. Samuel Marsden, established the Wellington mission. The situation was especially suited, and the labourers diligent and efficient, but after a few years the pressure of the white population put an end to the mission there. The Bev. Mr. Watson gathered up the remnant, and recommenced the mission on his own station down the Macquarie. Bishop Broughton visited that establishment, and was highly gratified with the success and management, but it also died out, I suspect, with the death of Mr. Watson. The Moravian Mission in Queensland was established by the Bev. Dr. Lang there, settled at Brisbane, but afterwards removed to the Bunya Bunya country, where natives congregate for the fruit of the pine. The salary promised by the Government was withdrawn, and that, with the influx of the squatters and their threats to the natives, caused the breaking up of the mission. The Boman Catholic Mission was commenced at Stradbroke Island by Archbishop Polding, in 1842, who brought out two Italian priests to establish it, but they soon became tired of the occupation, and retired from the charge. The mission of Sir B. Bourke to Melbourne, after some trial, had to be given up, owing to rapid pressure of the white population. The Wesleyan Mission there, after much labour, had likewise to be given up, for a similar reason. The mission of the Bev. Mr. Bidley, who acquired the language, and itinerated and preached to them, had likewise to be given up. Mr. Bidley has left a valuable work on their language. Two or three missions were established—one in Western Australia, another near Adelaide; and two others, under Mr. Matthews and the Bev. Mr. Gribble, are now under the consideration of the Government, which has appointed the Honorable G. Thornton, M.L.C., Commissioner, and the Board of Missions, under the Church Synod, so that some hope remains that many, especially children, may be rescued from gradual destruction, hitherto the result of civilized Christianity with them. It may naturally be asked what is the reason of these failures in the attempts which have been made in various portions of New South Wales, Victoria, &c. The answer is in the constant encroachment and pressure of the whites and their rapid settlement in an open country, coupled with the helplessness of the natives when brought within their influences, dependent as they are on gratuitous support, and the vices and diseases of the white population which are so fatal to them. The Government support of missions to 1838 appears to be— Wellington Valley Lake Macquarie £500 0 0 186 0 0 besides land 450 0 0 310 19 2 534 17 0 440 17 11 600 0 0 Moreton Bay ... Port Phillip Provisions and clothing Wesleyan—Port Phillip .. £2,691 16 11 General support In April, 1844, the Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts proposed to Lord Stanley to combine with the Colonial Government for supporting missions and schools for the European and aboriginal population of New South Wales, the Society offering to defray a certain portion of the expense. Four clergymen were to be maintained by the Church Societies on a salary of £250 per annum, and £50 for horse allowance, each; total, £1,200. Expenses to be borne by Government of four additional clergymen as before, £1,200. Two missionaries—one for the whites, and the other for the aboriginal population—were to be placed at each station; at Western Port, two ; at Goulburn, two ; at Mount Bouse, two ; at Biver Lodden, two. At each station, four schoolmasters. The missionaries at each station were to devote themselves to the white and black population within a reasonable distance.
