XX 



the previous time put together. It was a system that had been made 

 less expensive, and far less precarious. The electrical force thereby 

 generated had been transmitted in America for 70 miles. On the 

 western slopes of the Great Lake, the whole of the rainfall was carried 

 away by rivers that had no such reservoir as the Great Lake 

 afforded, and artificial reservoirs would have to be constructed to use 

 Buch a watershed. He thought it was a very useful thing to Tasmania 

 to publish to the world the fact that there was available such an 

 immense store of water-power in the colony. (Applause.) 



THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 



Mr. J. B. Walker read a further paper on Tasmanian aborigines. 

 He said that the estimates of the black population of Tasmania before 

 the advent of Europeans vary very considerably. G. A. Robinson 

 always maintained that in 1804 the number of the aborigines was from 

 6,000 to 8,000. Captain Kelly, in his evidence before Colonel Arthur's 

 committee in 1830, estimated the uative population at 5,000 ; but he 

 supposed that the number was still very great in the unsettled parts of 

 the colony, which we now know was not the case. On the other hand, 

 Backhouse puts the number as low as 700 to 1,000. Dr. Milligan 

 Bays : — " Assuming that the number of tribes and sub-tribes throughout 

 the territory was about 20, and that each mustered, of men, women, and 

 children, 50 to 250 individuals, and allowing them numbers proportioned 

 to the means of subsistence within the limits of their respective hunting 

 grounds, it does not appear probable that the aggregate aboriginal popu- 

 lation did materially, if at all, exceed 2,000." A like uncertainty 

 existed as to their tribal divisions. G. A. Robinson, in a speech made In 

 Sydney in 1838,shortly after he had left Flinders Island, stated that 

 he had necessarily learnt four languages to make himself understood 

 by the natives generally. But as regarded nations, he could truly say 

 that the island was divided and subdivided by the natives into dis- 

 tricts and contained many nations. Neither the number of the 

 aborigines nor their tribal divisions could be determined with any 

 accuracy. In considering the question, it must be borne in mind that 

 the parts of Tasmania capable of affording subsistence to a hunting 

 people were limited in area. The West Coast is shut off from the 

 centre and east (for long the only settled parts) by a wide region of 

 mountain and forest, extending throughout the whole leDgth of the 

 island. In the denEe forests covering a large part of this region, the 

 heavy timber is tangled with an almost impenetrable undergrowth, in 

 which very few animals or birds are found. Where the forest gives 

 place to bare mountain peak, or to so-called "plain," the button-grass 

 or the stunted scrub, constituting the sole growth, is not much more 

 favourable to animal life In places wallaby and kangaroo are to be 

 found, hut as a general rule the badger {i.e. wombat) is the only game. 

 It will be seen, therefore, that the native population was mainly con- 

 fined to the sea coasts, where they could obtain an abundant supply of 

 shell-fish'and crayfish, and to the lightly timbered and open lands of the 

 central valley, and of parts of the east and north-east, where opossum, 

 wallaby, kangaroo, emu, and other game were more or less plentiful. 

 It appeared that the blacks were accustomed to take considerable 

 pains, by means of periodical burnings, to keep down the scrub and pro- 

 mote the growth of grass on their favourite hunting grounds. Many 

 open plains, especially in the North, which were formerly known as 

 favourite resorts of the blacki, subsequently became overgrown with 

 forest through the discontinuance of these annuals burnings. Of the 

 tribal organisation of the aborigines practically nothing is known. 

 They usually roamed the country in small groups or parties, probably 

 composed of nearly-related families living together. Their camps rarely 



