§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the following statement made by Mr. Samuel Macleod, a member of a party of Victorian 849 miners, who recently travelled to the newly-discovered Egena goldfield, in the north of Western Australia:—
On arriving at Roeburn, we saw gangs of unfortunate aboriginals chained to wheelbarrows with bullock chains, making roads; others had the chains rolled round their neck and naked bodies. The effect of the chains can be imagined in a climate where the stones get so hot that they cannot be handled";and whether such treatment of the aboriginals occurs with the knowledge and sanction of the Governor of the Colony?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Baron H. de WORMS,) Liverpool, East ToxtethI have no information as to the truth of the statement quoted by the hon. Member. Under the Local Act of 1887, any prisoner (not only aboriginals) may be worked on the roads beyond the precincts of his prison, and, in order to prevent escape, may be kept at such work in chains or otherwise secured as may be deemed expedient. The Governor has shown zeal in checking abuses against the aborigines, and describes his policy towards them as "one of vigilant protection of the aboriginal race against all oppression and wrong-doing."