The name is absent

These laws, which Millar and Leung see as creating patterns

of drunkenness,grew out of a typification of Aborigines as’drunks ’.

by the Protector of Aborigines. The Report of 1867 mentioned

several cases of drunkenness. The Annual Reports of 1867-1891
4

showed the average number of Aborigines charged with drunkenness
as thirty - less than one a week. One would hardly see this
as a crisis situation needing restrictive laws to be passed.

Ironically, the essence of the injustice is highlighted in
the wording of the 1962 Bill for the new Aboriginal Affairs Act,
following the repeal of laws making provisions for exemption from
the Aboriginal Act.-

The time has come to remove progressively the restrictions
and in turn place upon Aborigines generally and persons of
Aboriginal descent the responsibility for their own conduct
and the observance of ordinary law. (South Australian
Statutes, Adelaide, 1962, no. 45, Elizabethae ii
Reginae_fAboriginal Affairs Act, pp. 134-146),.

The responsibility for the conduct of Aborigines, with respect
to drink,could well be attributed to Government legislation.

Paradoxically, the right to drink came to be seen as the ’right to be human',
increased the drinking of Aborigines, and made the problem more
visible.

One of the amendments to the 1939 Act in South Australia

provided for exemption from the Act for some who could meet certain

In any case where the Board is of the opinion that any
Aborigine by reason of his character and standard of
intelligence and development should be exempted from
the provisions of this Act, the Board may, by notice
in writing, declare that the Aborigine shall cease
to be an Aborigine for the purpose of this Act (Aborigines
Act 1934-1939, Section Ila).

Clearly, legislation for Aborigines in general was intended
to be seen as articulated for people who did not fulfil the require-
ments, that is, people of bad or indifferent character, of low
standard of intelligence and development.   By derivation all

Aborigines had these characteristics since those who were considered

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