COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
NORTHERN TERRITORY MEDICAL SERVICE,
Darwin, 17th November 1933
His Honour,
The Administrator of the Northern Territory, DARWIN
My attention has been directed to the Hansard report of Mr. Nelson’s speech of his motion for the adjournment on 1st November, 1933, in which he attacked the Administration for, as he alleged, suppressing the details of the Roper River Mission Enquiry, and to the report of the Minister’s reply thereto.
I gather from the Minister’s reply that he is satisfied that the Roper River Mission has done good work in the past and that this Mission will not be closed. As I know that it was the intention of the authorities of this Mission to approach the Government for assistance I desire to bring under the notice of the Minister my opinion that the Missions of the Church Missionary Society have in the past been hopelessly mismanaged and that the harm which they have done to the aboriginal individually and collectively has been infinitely in excess of any little good which may have been achieved in spite of the methods adopted. In 1925, as I have formerly reported, I formed the opinion that the Roper River Mission should be closed. In 1933 this impression has become a fixed conviction.
I have moreover for several years been hearing ugly rumours of the treatment of half-caste girls at Groote Eylandt. Some of these rumours gained confirmation from witnesses examined before the Enquiry at Roper River but naturally a thorough investigation into the affairs at Groote Eylandt was not possible at the Enquiry. I am now in receipt of adverse reports on the Groote Eylandt Mission from Protectors Hall and Morey. These reports include a signed and witnessed statement made by one Richard Hall, a half-caste at Groote Eylandt who makes inter alia the following serious allegations:-
- That the girls were used to drag lorry loads of timber a distance of 1½ miles there being no horses at the Station.
- That both boys and girls were harnessed to the plough and made to cultivate the land.
- That methods of punishment used on the Station include the use of stocks, chaining to a tree with the anchor chain of the “Hope”; imprisonment in a cell for period up to two weeks at a time without respite for exercise.
- That the girls are clothed in dresses of hessian bags and sleep on the ground.
- The diet as far as can be ascertained from the Annual Reports of the Mission is hopelessly inadequate and ill-balanced.
Opportunity exists of checking Halls’ statements by reference to some half dozen half-castes from Groote Eylandt at present in detention at Channel Island and two others recently admitted to the Compound at Darwin. I have telegraphed to Protector Morey asking for a full report specifying certain aspects to which special attention is to be given. In the meantime it is urgently recommended that the Minister withhold consideration of any proposition which may be put before him by the Church Missionary Society for the purpose of ensuring the continuance or the extension of activities of either of these Missions and that the recommendations of the Roper River Board of Enquiry covering safeguards to be provided for the better control of Missions be put into effect immediately.
Cecil Cook
Chief Protector of Aboriginals