Australia has recently fallen into disrepute over her handling of the "Aboriginal Problem." The problem, which involves the social and economic advancement of people having a vastly different, and by our standards, impoverished culture, with the attempts being made to solve it, is worthy of attention.

When the first party of European settlers sailed into Botany Bay in 1788 there were 300,000 Aborigines. As a people, they were nomadic hunters with very few material possessions. They had a stone age culture; one which was greatly concerned with a magic ritual.

There were clashes over possession of the land. The natives accepted the crops and animals of the settlers as his for the taking, as he had always accepted produce of the land.

Pacification by force became the recognised policy for discouraging pilfering of this kind, often by Indiscriminate shooting.

The Aborigines lacked the Maoris' genius in battle, and despite the murder of the odd station hand the settlers took over native foraging grounds without treaty or recompense.

European diseases such as measles, smallpox, gonorrhoea and tuberculosis caused the deaths of thousands, as their only medication was incantation.

Under such severe competition, the numbers dwindled to the present day total of some 80,000.

Although greatly reduced in strength, the race Is not dying out, as once thought. The Aboriginal cannot be ignored on the grounds that he will just go away. What should be done about him?

It would be possible to leave him alone, as a unique anthropological curiosity.