Aborigines' “annual gift” of blankets

40 or 50 Aborigines come in for their “annual gift” of blankets at Maitland in the Hunter Valley. One “black lady” comes in for her blanket mounted on a very good horse with side-saddle, lady’s riding skirt. A local newspaper observes an “unusual number of children amongst whom [was] a perfect white child which at first [the correspondent] could scarcely believe belonged to our native [A]borigines. (Maitland Mercury, 21 May 1868, courtesy of Carl Hoipo, Wollombi Historical Society).