NO. 2.948.
PER1 11. - .\"1.1.:RDAY. OCTOBER 3, 1936.
SIXTY-SECOND YEAR.
Catholic Missionary Exposes Exploitation of Aboriginal Women CGOVERNMENTAL INQUIRY TO BE MADE Immediate inquiries will be made by the Government into reports by Rt. Rev. Monsignor Gsell, Superior of the Bathurst Island Catholic Mission Station that aboriginal women are being exploited by Japanese traders. This assurance was given in the House of Representatives on Friday, 25th. ult., by the Minister for the Interior (Mr. Paterson), in reply to Mr. McCall (U.A.P.), of New South Wales. lubras soap, scent and powder, Rev elations concerning the in addition to food." ,candalous practices of Japanese There was only a slight intraders on Bathurst and Melcrease in the number ot JapanV ilk on Islands were made ese half-castes on the island, Thursday, 27th. ult., by Monsigadded Monsignor Gsell, because nor Gsell, who is visiting Darof the tender age at which the win. majority of the girls were .exSeventy Japanese-owned lugploited. gers as well as several boats opM onsignor Gsell said that in erated from Darwin by Japanese past years he had bought babN crews anchored along the coast girls from their parents to ennil Bathurst Island every spring sure their permanent attachment tide. Monsignor Gsell declared. to the mission. But in the past Aboriginal swarmeti women t wo years the fathers of the naaboard the luggers "like mo tives had refused to sell their squitos," where they wery bar• daughters to the mission because tered to the crews by their bus of the Japanese "trading." The bands for food and tobacco. Peronly aborigines who did not ..eyerance Ivith patrol raids by force their women aboard the the Commonwealth patrol launch luggers were the mission "boys.' Larrikia was advocated lw To stamp out the practice, signor Gsell to assist in checkMonsirmor Gsell urged an ining this practice which, he said. creased subsidy to the missions had increased alarmingly in the by the Government. "Thousands P t two years. are spent upon the work of anThe recent capture by the pathropologists, but with what retrol boat of two luggers with sult?" he asked. "To maintain lubras aboard. and the heavy the 2,000 Bathurst and Melville penalties subsequently inflicted, islanders the Government gives MONSIGNOR GSELL. he said, had temporarily deter£200 a year, but we spend more red the Japanese. "The pracdaily on flour and totice still continues, however," he to regard as a necessity. Girls than went on. "I understand that as young as ten years are sent to bacco alone for the natives. certain Japanese are anxious that the luggers. At first they pro- Where is the margin for other The natiN es can be inthe Government should prevent test vigorously. child work? One the natives from boarding their leapt from a lugger and swam duced to abandon the barter w vessels. but the Japanese encour- ashore Jour times in an effort to w omen only if the mission could aged the evil in the first place. escape. but eventually was spear- fully supply the food which they The natives in this area arc ed in the leg by her husband ana are now forced to obtain from polygamous. Complete eraBeCause of the dragged back to the Japanese. the Japanese. scarcity of food in the bush, the A fter a time these girls await dication of the practice can be aborigines force their women to the arrival of the luggers of their achi.yed only through early in board boats to obtain flour and own will, attracted by lucrative fluence on the children by the ion. tobacco, which they have come gifts. The Japanese give the
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