Fortunate

Fortunately the states appear willing to shed their responsibilities. Aboriginal welfare is expensive and those States with the lowest populations have the highest proportion of Aborigines, so that the burden is unevenly distributed.

The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines is petitioning for the appropriate amendments to the constitution making welfare the business of the Commonwealth Government, and seems to be getting widespread support.

This is the theory underlying assimilation. How is assimilation proceeding in practice?

In the first place, the chance of complete intermingling of the two populations is much less than it is in New Zealand.

The Aborigines have a long way to go before they are, as a whole, on an economic par with the Europeans. There are only four Aborigines at University, for example.