[“Prinsep Quits”, The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 02 June 1907, page 6]
ON TWELVE MONTHS’ LEAVE.
A Billet Vacant—The Man That’s Wanted.
It has taken a terrible lot of agitation to awaken the Government to a realisation of the appalling incompetency which has characterised the administration of the Aborigines Department. The Archimedian lever is a pretty powerful instrument, yet it has had to be exerted to the utmost in order to shift our bureaucrats. Still even those cannot resitst for all time, and now—at last!—they have been moved just a little bit.
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It has been arranged that Mr. H. C. Prinsep, Chief Protector of Aborigines, shall in a few days, if not before, take twelve months’ leave of absence, and that at the end of the term he shall retire altogether from the public service. This really means that Mr. Prinsep gets twelve months’ salary, and notice to quit, for “twelve months’ leave of absence” is merely a euphemistic way of putting it. In other words, the Government, at length aroused to the platitudinous fact that a change has been for years demanded by the public, have given Mr. Prinsep £450, and told him that his services are no longer required.
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Mr. Prinsep is no doubt a very amiable gentleman. Against him personally the “Sunday Times” has never had a harsh word to say. But the trouble is that he was too amiable—too mild, too flaccid, too utterly incapable of being the “Chief Inspector of the Aboriginies,” or to undertake any other arduous task of defending a weak and wronged race against the rapacity and ravishment inflicted upon them by inhuman monsters in the form of men. The horrors of the Anderson case are still vivid in the public mind, and the accusations and strictures of Dr. Roth on the whole treatment of the blacks are practically only of yesterday.
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The Anderson prosecution and conviction was not initiated and carried out by Mr. Prinsep. It was due to the Press calling calling upon the bureaucrats to take action, and it was only by yelling in their wax-clogged ears that they could be made to listen and act. They were startled into action on that occasion, for if they had been allowed to “sleep on it” heaven knows for certain that they would have become as stolid as ever in the morning. And the brutal abuses proclaimed by Dr. Roth are still crying out for a strong man to put them down, albeit we may presume that the Government has decided that the cry shall be heard. We say “presume” uncertainly, for it may be that Mr. Prinsep himself has realised his inability to handle the problem, and has thus precipitated the position.
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So far the Colonial Secretary has not appointed anyone to take charge of the Department. In a few days the Civil Service Commissioner will call for applications for the post, and persons who consider that they are capable of carrying out the duties, whether they are members of the bureaucracy or not, may apply. If none of the bureaucratic applicants are deemed to be suitable, then the Commissioner can appoint some outsider. There is no doubt that bureaucratic applicants will get the preference, and to give them that preference points will be strained in their favor. “All things being unequal,” the choice will fall upon the man inside.
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Now, just here we want to do some more yelling in the official ear. There has been too much scandal, abuse, and brutality in the treatment of the unfortunate blacks, and with all the history of the past to guide the Commissioner or the Government, or whoever has the final selection, there must be no mistake in appointing another weakling. Let a vigourly indignant mn be placed over the welfare of the aboriginals - a man who will go out and see from himself; who will not be susceptible to the influence of the Six Families in carrying out his work; who will not sit in a carpeted office, but go where the abuses exist, and stamp them out with a large and emphatic foot; who knows what ought to be done and will do it.
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That is the kind of man required, and as the authorities know it by this time, let the flail fall on their backs if they appoint any other. It is true the the new “Protector” will only hold the office for twelve months, and if nothing found wanting at the end of that period will not be continued in the job. But that is not good enough. The best man, the right man, and no other must be selected at once. We don’t want any more pensioners or “family” connections dumped int the billet, just to get rid of them or provide for them.
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That has been the custom in the “good old days,” but it won’t do any longer. Mr. Prinsep was formerly Secretary to the Mines Department and was exchanged to the Aborigines Department simply because the first-named position had grown beyond his capabilities, and incidentally to put a protege into the Mines office. The welfare of the aborigines was the last thing thought of, if it ever entered into the calculation at all. There must be no repetition of that sort of thing.
AB notes:
The Sunday Times was more left-leaning and anti-Government than The West Australian and The Western Mail
There is very severe criticism of Chief Protector of Aborigines H. C. Prinsep in this 1907 piece,
which also mentions “the Six Families”: Western Australian pioneering families still influential.
