A. O. Neville - Commissioner For Native Affairs

Commissioner For Native Affairs

In 1936, Neville became the Commissioner for Native Affairs, a post he held until his retirement in 1940.

Opposition to this practice was advocated at the time, but his role as Commissioner was never persistently challenged. In 1934, a royal commission was called to examine the current state of Aboriginals with regard his role as commissioner. This ended up giving him more power over the lives of Western Australian Aboriginals which, in turn, only increased their suffering. The period of misguided cultural assimilation, attempted during Neville's administration, had followed an era of direct conflict with indigenous Australians with regard the theft of cattle and sheep, which were used for food. The political support and funding given to Neville was slight and his capacity to improve their circumstances was restricted. Open hostility was still expressed, in public and parliament, and violence in more remote regions was continuing unabated. Many indigenous peoples became impoverished, especially by forced dislocation with police assistance, as the population and development of the state increased. The Commission was given responsibility for these people, who did not have political rights, and Neville sought to improve the circumstances in which they lived. He failed miserably and there may be evidence that he didn't really try at all. At all times he put the white society and government first before the welfare of those he had the responsibility to protect.

Neville believed that biological absorption was the key to 'uplifting the Native race.' Speaking before the Moseley Royal Commission, which investigated the administration of Aboriginals in 1934, he defended the policies of forced settlement, removing children from parents, surveillance, discipline and punishment, arguing that

"they have to be protected against themselves whether they like it or not. They cannot remain as they are. The sore spot requires the application of the surgeon's knife for the good of the patient, and probably against the patient's will."

Neville also protested that children had not been removed indiscriminately, insisting that

"the children who have been removed as wards of the Chief Protector have been removed because I desired to be satisfied that the conditions surrounding their upbringing were satisfactory, which they certainly were not."

He published Australia's Coloured Minority, a text outlining his plan for the biological absorption of Aboriginal people into white Australia. The book contained a defence of his policy and an admission that the Aborigines had been harmed by European intervention. For this reason, he said, more must be done to assist them:

"I make no apologies for writing the book, because there are things which need to be said. So few of our own people as a whole are aware of the position . Yet we have had the coloured man amongst us for a hundred years or more. He has died in his hundreds, nay thousands, in pain, misery and squalor, and through avoidable ill-health. Innumerable little children have perished through neglect and ignorance. The position, in some vital respects, is not much better today than it was fifty years ago. Man is entitled to a measure of happiness in his life. Yet most of these people have never known real happiness. Some are never likely to know it. The causes of their condition are many. Mainly it is not their fault, it is ours, just as it lies with us to put the matter right."

Neville was a notable resident of Darlington and was a regular user of the Eastern Railway which closed a few months before his death. He died in Perth, and was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery.