Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 113 



Ethnological Section. 



The President stated, with regard to Mr. Woolf, that 

 he was a gentleman accredited from important bodies in 

 Europe interested in Ethnology and had already sub- 

 mitted to the Society a proposal for the establishment of an 

 Ethnological Section of the Society. The Council had 

 approved of the suggestion, and he had now to commend to 

 the members this new Section. The laws of the Society 

 gave them the power to form such a Section, and it was 

 hoped that it would be formed, and do good work. It 

 would be called "Section E." The reason for its formation 

 was that, at the present time, traces of the Aboriginal races 

 were growing fainter and fainter. They were rapidly 

 passing away — their customs were being forgotten, and their 

 productions, in the way of instruments, would shoi'tly be no 

 longer obtainable, and already there was some doubt as 

 to the authenticity and exact object and purpose of the 

 articles exhibited in our various Museums. It was thought 

 that an Ethnological Section would be able to save from 

 oblivion many interesting facts and relics connected with 

 Aboriginal races — races which were doomed to disappear, 

 and which were rapidly disappearing. They, and they 

 alone, could do this work, and if they omitted to do it, the 

 information would be lost for ever. That was the object of 

 the formation of an Ethnological Section. The gentlemen 

 most interested in Ethnology were Mr. Howitt and Mr. 

 Fison, and their co-operation had been secured. There were 

 collections of Aboriginal weapons and instruments at the 

 Public Library and elsewhere, and if the Section could 

 do anything in the way of getting these classified, good 

 work would be done. A doubt had been suggested in many 

 quarters as to the authenticity of some, and it was desirable 

 that those that were not original should be eliminated, so 

 that they would have genuine collections properly arranged 

 and described. This was the object of the Ethnological 

 Section, and it was a Section which certainly had oppor- 

 tunities for doing very good work. 



Mr. Jennings drew upon the blackboard the outline of 

 some curious battle axes, which he had obtained from an 

 Aboriginal tribe in India He believed they were still in 

 India, and he would write for them, and give them to 

 the Society. 



