[This letter has subsequently been printed for Parliament at page 43 of the Sessional Paper Number 311 of 1841, the Colonization of New Zealand.

ED.]) Mauritius, June 4 1840.
MY LORD, I have the honour to submit to your Lordship a report upon the best means of promoting the civilization of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, which report is founded upon a careful study of the language, prejudices, and traditional customs of this people.
Feeling anxious to render this report as complete as possible I have delayed transmitting it to your Lordship until the latest possible period; portions of it have in the interim been laid before some of the local governments in Australia, and a few of the suggestions contained in it have been already acted upon.
But as so small a portion of Australia is as yet occupied, and the important task of so conducting the occupation of new districts as to benefit the aborigines in the greatest possible degree yet remains to be performed, I have thought that it would be agreeable to your Lordship to be put in possession of all such facts relating to this interesting subject as are at present known.
None but general principles, equally applicable to all portions of the continent of Australia, are embodied in this report; and I am particularly solicitous that that portion of it which commences at the 21st paragraph should receive consideration from your Lordship, as the whole machinery required to bring this plan into operation now exists in the different Australian colonies, and its full development would entail no expense whatever upon either the Home or local Governments.
I have, etc., (Signed) G.GREY, Captain 83rd Regiment, Commanding Australian Expedition.
Right Honourable Lord John Russell, etc.etc.

etc.
REPORT UPON THE BEST MEANS OF PROMOTING THE CIVILIZATION OF THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA.
1.

The aborigines of Australia having hitherto resisted all efforts which have been made for their civilization, it would appear that, if they are capable of being civilized, it can be shown that all the systems on which these efforts have been founded contain some common error, or that each of them involved some erroneous principle; the former supposition appears to be the true one, for they all contained one common element, they all started with one recognized principle, the presence of which in the scheme must necessarily have entailed its failure.
2.

This principle was that, although the natives should, as far as European property and European subjects were concerned, be made amenable to British laws, yet so long as they only exercised their own customs upon themselves, and not too immediately in the presence of Europeans, they should be allowed to do so with impunity.
3.