Mister neville biography

Auber Octavius Neville () was one of scores of young British men of 'good standing but slender means' who looked to a future beyond their own.

Haebich and R. View Previous Version. Neville seemed destined for a career in banking. After ten years in Victoria, in he went to Western Australia where his brother was practising law and soon joined the public service as a records clerk in the Department of Works. Quickly achieving a reputation for efficiency, he was appointed registrar of a sub-department of the Premier's Office in , and in was promoted to registrar of the Colonial Secretary's Department.

In he became an immigration officer and was appointed head of the new sub-department of tourism and immigration in He was thus closely involved in the selecting and processing of some 40, British immigrants to Western Australia in In Neville became secretary of the Patriotic Relief Fund and continued as chairman of its permanent relief committee.

It was as chief protector of Aborigines that he came to the public eye. He shaped official policy towards Aborigines during much of the period from until his retirement in Appointed secretary of the Department of the North-West in , he remained chief protector of Aborigines until when the department was abolished and Aboriginal affairs were again placed under the control of the Aborigines Department.

Auber Octavius Neville () was one of scores of young British men of 'good standing but slender means' who looked to a future beyond their own shores.

As chief protector and commissioner for native affairs , his strategy was to extend the department's legal authority, particularly over people of part descent, his main interest. At his instigation, regulations were issued under the Aborigines Act, and the Act itself was amended, to give the department more power, particularly over children.

Amending legislation in , following the Moseley report, owed much to Neville. The ostensible purpose was to bring about permanent segregation of Aborigines of full descent, who were believed to be near extinction; and temporary segregation and training of those of part descent who would re-enter society as domestics and farm-workers, eventually blending with the white population through intermarriage.