Protector Matthew Moorhouse (longer than those for Wyatt) was published in 1839. The Aboriginal Orphans Act 1844 empowered the Protector to apprentice out orphan Aboriginal children and, with parental consent, other Aboriginal children until the age of 21. It also gave the Protector the right to visit children and to penalise employers who mistreated the apprentices. George Stevenson, Protector of the Aborigines (ad interim), 1836–1837 Captain Walter Bromley, Protector of the Aborigines (ad interim), 1837 William Wyatt, Protector of the Aborigines (ad interim), 1837–1839 Dr Matthew Moorhouse, Protector of the Aborigines, 20 June 1839 – 31 March 1856 Edward John Eyre, Sub-Protector on the Murray River, 1841–1847 Edward Bate Scott, Sub-Protector on the Murray River, 1848–1857 On Moorhouse's retirement in 1856, the SA government decided that it could no longer justify the expense of having a dedicated "Protector", combining the role with that of the Commissioner of Crown Lands. Charles Bonney, Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration (as ex-officio Protector), 1 April 1856 – 20 August 1857; 2 September 1857 – 4 July 1859 William Milne, Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration (ex-officio Protector), 21 August 1857 – 1 September 1857; 5 July 1859 – 9 May 1860 Henry Strangways, Commissioner of Crown Lands and Immigration (as ex-officio Protector), 10 May 1860 – 20 November 1861 In 1860, a Legislative Council Select Committee investigating "The Aborigines" found that a dedicated Protector should again be employed. In 1866, during illness by Protector Walker, his office became known as the Aborigines Office. Dr John Walker, Protector of Aborigines, 21 November 1861 – 26 September 1868 Edward Bate Scott, Acting Protector of Aborigines, 1867 1868 saw Protector Walker die days after a new premier and cabinet were appointed. A political crisis over how to best sell and develop land possessed by Aborigines had just resulted in new government under the control of the strongly "small government" John Hart. It was decided that the Office of Protector should again be absorbed into that of the Commissioner of Crown Lands. According to J. D. Woods in 1879, "With the cessation of the Protectorate of Aborigines as the function of a separate staff, all official interest in the native seems to have expired, and nothing is now done for them except periodically to give to them, through the mounted police, flour, tea, sugar, &c., and even this modicum of generosity is administered in a loose and