cHaAP. 111] TREATMENT OF NATIVE RACES 1065
brought up to better prospects than those of the native
method, and to enable the Government to increase the areas
set apart as reserves beyond 2,000 acres. The Act also
forbids a native to plead guilty of any offence without the
sanction of the Protector, a necessary precaution, as the
native is anxious to please.
The expenditure on the aborigines in Western Australia,
which was £15,125 in 1906, was raised to £17,949 in 1908,
while the total expenditure in 1906 for the whole of the
Commonwealth was over £56,000, and now exceeds £63,000.
The Commonwealth itself possesses, in Papua, a large
area of which the population is and must be mainly native.
The administration of Papua and the legislation is conducted
on the approved Imperial models. Efforts to induce the
permission of compulsory labour, whether directly or in-
directly, have failed, and the declared policy of the Common-
wealth is to develop Papua with all due regard to the interests
of the native race. It has, accordingly, declined to sanction
proposals mooted from time to time for systems of compulsory
labour, and has refused to sanction the importation of inden-
tured coolies, which has been tried successfully in Fiji, but
which has in its view tended to diminish the prospect of the
successful advancement of the native race. Geographically
more connected with New Zealand, Norfolk Island is a quasi
native community derived from Pitcairn, and is now ruled
by the Governor of New South Wales, who is allowed by his
Ministers a free hand. He has full legislative authority by
virtue of an Order in Council under an Imperial Act of 1856.
Ultimately, transfer to the Commonwealth seems desirable
if it can be accompanied by free access to Commonwealth
markets, which is denied on the ‘ White Australia’ policy
to products grown by native labour in Papua.
‘ For native labour, cf. two reports presented to the Commonwealth
Parliament in 1910, Nos. 60 and 63, and see the Handbook of Papua;
Parl. Pap., 1909, No. 76; 1910, Nos. 14 and 74.
* See Parl. Pap., C. 4583, 4193, 4842, 8358 (transfer to New South Wales :
ouriously enough, the Ministry seem to have allowed the Governor to do
what he likes) ; above, p. 914, n. 1; Denison, Viceregal Life, i. 337 seq.
