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welfare be increased and that Aborigines should have the same opportunities as other Australians. The Northern
Territory Welfare Ordinance of 1953 set the direction of Aboriginal administration for the next 20 years. Under it
Aborigines were committed to the State’s care solely on the grounds that, as individuals and not because of their
race, they were in need of special assistance. A Welfare Branch under a Director of Welfare replaced the Native
Affairs Branch of the Northern Territory Administration. Not all observers, though, agreed with Hasluck that the
new ordinance represented a positive advance. Professor A P Elkin, the noted anthropologist, claimed that its
changes were essentially semantic. Others, particularly by the 1960s, argued that the whole assimilation ideology
embodied in the ordinance was designed to destroy a separate Aboriginal culture.
Even so, Hasluck was totally sincere in his determination to promote Aboriginal welfare. Under the direction
of his protégé Harry Giese the Welfare Branch grew rapidly. In 1964 it had 504 staff members. Both Hasluck
and Giese were keen to attract graduates to the Branch and also made provision for officers to attend special
training courses at the Australian School of Pacific Administration in Sydney. The Branch accumulated many
achievements. Health, housing and education of Aborigines were upgraded. New settlements were established.
Less success, though, took place on pastoral stations as many pastoralists were unhappy to have a separate
organisation represented on their properties.
Hasluck’s career after he left the Department of Territories was distinguished. He was Minister for Defence
and Minister for External Affairs before serving as Governor General of Australia between 1969 and 1974.
After retiring to Perth, he wrote several important books, including a powerful defence of his Aboriginal policies,
Shades of Darkness, published in 1988. In 1991 he returned to Darwin to deliver the Eric Johnston Lecture, later
published as Pioneers of Postwar Recovery (1992), in which he reviewed some aspects of his experiences in the
Territory. He received many high honours: Privy Councillor (PC) in 1966, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of
Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG) in 1969, Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1970
and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG) in 1979.
Hasluck was, in his own words, virtually ‘Premier and the whole of State Cabinet’ in the Northern Territory during
a particularly critical era in its history. Though he was later accused of being a ‘one man show’, his achievements
were, as Peter Donovan later wrote, ‘real and abiding’.
P F Donovan, At the Other End of Australia, 1984; P Hasluck, Mucking About, 1977, Shades of Darkness, 1988, Pioneers of Postwar Recovery,
1992; A Heatley, Almost Australians, 1990; A Powell, Far Country, 1982; Who’s Who in Australia, 1992.
DAVID CARMENT, Vol 2.
HAULTAIN, CHARLES THEODORE GRAHAM (THEO) (1896–1976), master mariner, naval officer, public
servant and author, was born in Calcutta, India, on 17 May 1896, the son of Henry Graham Haultain and his wife
Helen Caroline, nee Hill. After attending kindergarten in India, Haultain continued his schooling in England and
joined the merchant navy as a cadet. He joined the British India Company and saw service on its ships during the
First World War. In August 1917 he entered the Royal Navy as a Sub Lieutenant. For the remainder of the war he
served on minesweepers. After demobilisation he moved to New Zealand, where he joined the Union Steamship
Company. While serving as a Third Mate on the passenger ship Niagara on the Australia to Canada run he met his
future wife, Ruby Olive (Pat) Cust. They married in Vancouver, Canada, on 26 July 1926. In 1928 Haultain, who
had by this stage gained his Master (Foreign Going) Certificate, left the sea due to severe bronchitis. He held a
variety of jobs until in 1935 he was appointed to the Northern Territory Patrol Service of the Customs Department
in Darwin.
Haultain took command of the 45 foot Scott Paine designed craft Larrakia, which was nearing completion in
England. Although Larrakia was initially intended as a sea air rescue craft to stand by on the coast when Qantas
aircraft were making the Darwin to Singapore run, she was, due to concerns voiced by the pearling industry
and church groups, to serve a dual purpose. The Darwin based pearling industry was under increasing pressure
from Japanese pearlers, and income from pearling had fallen sharply during the 1930s. In 1936 the 29 Darwin
based pearling luggers were faced with competition from between 60 and 70 Japanese luggers, serviced by a
mother ship, operating in local waters. The concern of the church groups was that there was no control over
the Japanese luggers or Darwin based luggers with Japanese crews and that crewmen were landing on the north
coast and causing problems by interfering with Aboriginal women. This situation had led to bloodshed on several
occasions. The murder of five Japanese crewmembers from a Darwin based lugger by Aborigines at Caledon Bay
in September 1932 highlighted the problems. Amendments to the Aboriginal Ordinance were finalised in 1937
that introduced high penalties for luggers entering the territorial limits of Aboriginal Reserve waters.
Larrakia, Haultain and the four crew members he had selected were transported to Darwin on Mangola,
arriving on 18 May 1936. His family and sister in law later joined him. There were four children, Theodore, known
as Graham, Veronica, Philippa and Robin. The family lived in several locations before settling at Myilly Point.
The establishment of the Northern Territory Patrol Service was not without its difficulties. Larrakia had not
been designed for tropical conditions and her engines were unreliable. When Haultain made his first arrest in
June 1937 under the new Aboriginal Ordinance, he was deeply embarrassed by the fact that his ‘captive’ had to
tow him part of the way back to Darwin. Two Japanese luggers were arrested in August and the boats confiscated.
When there were more arrests in September, the Japanese owners took the matter to the Supreme Court. When the
case was heard in June 1938, the judge, T A Wells, much to Haultain’s disgust, ordered the luggers returned to the
owners and awarded 2 000 Pounds damages. To add insult to injury, Haultain was ordered shortly afterwards to
clear the Darwin Harbour entrance of three Japanese luggers, which had refused to move to allow HMAS Moresby