NTGR2 Quarterly Report on Northern Territory (to 31 December 1884). [Together with the] Quarterly Reports ending 31 March 1885 and 30 June 1885

Adelaide: Government Printer, 1885. Adelaide, Government Printer, 1885. Folio, 14; 11 and 13 pages plus a folding colour map of the entrance to the Daly River (360x425mm) with the first paper. Drop-title in each instance; small holes in the inner margins where sewn when bound (now disbound as one item); small marginal paper flaw to one leaf; short tear to the map near the stub; in excellent condition. South Australian Parliamentary Papers Number 53, 54 and 55 of 1885, with print runs of 850, 870 and 670 copies respectively. Primarily given over to reports of pastoral occupation (including several first-hand accounts of new country explored). Present-day readers may be interested to note the comments made by the Government Resident, J. Langdon Parsons, in his section headed 'Aboriginals and Settlement' in the first report: 'The blacks are beginning to realise that the white man, with his herds, and his fences, and his preservation of water, is interfering with what they properly enough, from their point of view, regard as their natural rights. Their hunting grounds and game preserves are being disturbed, and their food supply both diminished and rendered uncertain.... That settlement and stocking must and will go on is certain - that outrages will be committed by both sides is probable; but even those who do not claim to be philanthropists are not satisfied with the contemplation that the blacks are to be improved off the face of the earth'.