146 "• ^* .lOlINSTON MKMOlllAl. l.K( TIUK 



have ceased to decrease in numbers, and are actually in- 

 creasing. We could secure surely the same happy state of 

 things for our Australian aborigines if we had the will to do 

 it, and it is part of our frolemn duty and service to humanity 

 to have the will and to see that the lot of our aboriginal 

 is made as happy as may reasonably be. This about the 

 Navajos we have learnt thi'ough the recent Pan-Pacific Con- 

 gress, and the Congress has made us realise more than ever 

 before our responsibilities to the native races of the Pacific 

 in our own or in mandated territories and protectorates O)- 



Many of these highly interesting peoples have become 

 extinct, many are fast becoming extinct, partly through dis- 

 eases endemic in the islands, partly through diseases intro- 

 duced by the white man. 



At the Pan-Pacific Congress, Dr. Cumpston, Chief 

 Medical Officer to the Commonwealth, weighed his words 

 well when he said that if half the cost of a modern battleship 

 were expended, over a period of five years, on rliminating dis- 

 eases and providing proper hygienic conditions for the 

 native races within the shores of the Pacific, all those dis- 

 tressing diseases of tonu (Yaws), filaria, hookworm, and 

 many others which cause so much suffering ana prematui'o 

 death, could be completely eradicated. 



Surely, surely the great nations around the Pacific should 

 co-operate without delay in setting in hand such a work 

 not only for the sake of our own health, a.s well as that of 

 the Pacific peoples, but for the sake of that humanity which 

 should raise modern man to heights undreamed of by his 

 Pala?olithic ancestor. 



Certainly the noble character whose memory we cherish 

 so particularly to-day would, were he among us now, h.-.ve 

 been foremo.st in this pleading, fcr as Sir John Dodds has said 

 of him: "The actions of his life appear tj be governed by 

 "those principles of justice and kindness towards others which 

 "God has established as the only true guide ^o human t-on- 

 "duct." 



Carlyle says truly that man in this life i.'- attended by 

 "the Terrors antl the S[)lendours." Johnston saw much of 

 both, and who does not, but his face was set upon the 

 Splendours, and we are thankful to him, devoutly thank- 

 ful, for helping us to realise the good and grandeur and the 

 sacred mystery in human life. 



('.)) The resolution (if the ConKreHN urKinK the need for the eittablish- 

 inK of n Chnir of Anlhropolrnty nt nn Auntralian IiniverHity in to be 

 submitted for, it in hoped, favourable conHiUeration to the federal Govern- 

 ment. 



