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THE PORT DENISON TIMES
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1864.
THE remarks which appeared in this journal a few weeks back, relative to the necessity for increased police protection for the country districts, will be strengthened by the news which has just reached Bowen of another double murder at Victoria Downs, a station belonging to Mr. J. M. Black, and adjoining that where the previous murders were committed. The scene of the outrage was at an out station, where little or no assistance was to be obtained. It is said that the hut which the murdered shepherds occupied had been robbed previously on three separate occasions; and perhaps a certain amount of blame is attributable to the whites for not taking steps to prevent these depredations. If they had acted with firmness, and had made the natives understand that they would not be allowed on the station, this dreadful tragedy might have been prevented. However, the fact remains that the men have lost their lives, that their bodies have been brutally mutilated, and cut open for the purpose of abstracting the kidney fat, to which the blackfellow attributes so much virtue (horrible idea!); that between two and three thousand sheep have been scattered, and that more men will not undertake the charge of the sheep now at so much peril. And who can blame them? The squatter, as a natural result, is a serious loser; in fact it is ruination to him. The man who leaves the comforts of civilised life for the wilderness; who risks his capital and his health; who undergoes willingly the hardship and privation and danger incident to the settlement of new country, in the hope of one day reaping an adequate return for his expenditure of money and trouble, and who contributes his share to the revenue of the country, is surely entitled to some protection against the assaults of savages. But in the outlying portions of this district there is absolutely none. The native police force stationed here, under the command of Lieut. MARLOW, though supposed to consist of 20 troopers, has never mustered more than the moiety; and when Lieut. MARLOW left for the Burdekin, after the perpetration of the previous murders, he could not raise more than three men. Now if we are to derive any benefit from the native police force, it is necessary that that force should be sufficiently strong to carry out the work for which it is intended, otherwise it is a mere farce. A detachment of ten men for a tract of country so large as that under Lieut. MARLOW'S command, stretching as it does from the Pioneer to the Burdekin, is, we affirm, totally inadequate; and unless the Government at once take this matter into serious consideration the most disastrous results are likely to ensue. As regards the question of labour—a most important one—we will take the case of a new arrival in the colony, a man able and willing to work. He reads an account of the murder of two men, and before people have done talking of the affair news arrives of two other poor fellows being killed and mutilated. It cannot be supposed that he will engage in such perilous work. Being unacquainted with the country he will fail to distinguish one locality from another, and the whole district will be under a ban, and labourers not to be had. Now as we expect a periodical influx of population direct from home, it will have a very bad effect on the immigrants if they are constantly hearing of these murderings. They will, naturally enough, object to go where their lives are in constant jeopardy, and will prefer to hang about the town, in the hope of getting some employment which, though not so remunerative, is at least safe. This would be the very worst thing that could happen for the town and district, but unless the Government move [sic] in the matter we see plainly that it will happen. We call upon the Government, then, in the name of common justice, to do their duty. The squatter has made Australia what it is, and he and the men in his employ are entitled to the protection for which they contribute. We only ask for that which we are supposed to have now—a native police force numbering at least twenty men, and that part of that force should be stationed in the outlying districts, where their services are most frequently required.