220 NATURAL SCIENCE [April 



being done by the Telegraph Department of New Zealand, who, on 

 the occurrence of any earthquake shock, fill up certain forms stating 

 the exact time, duration, and other details of such shocks as occur 

 in their own region. This information is of much value, and has 

 been collected in New Zealand since 1889, and though some of 

 the other colonies have instituted similar observing stations, Mr 

 Hogben asks for a more uniform and developed system. He asks 

 also for the immediate establishment of stations at Sydney, Mel- 

 bourne, and Timaru, in order that a chain of stations might be 

 established which would then be continuous around the world. 



The Origin of the Australian and Tasmanian Aborigines 



Mr Howitt, the President for Ethnology, in dealing with the origin 

 of the aborigines, said he was of opinion that, in spite of the conten- 

 tion of many writers to the effect that the primitive Australians and 

 Tasmanians had come from other lands in ships or canoes, there 

 were but few evidences to show that they had any knowledge of 

 navigation or of sea-going vessels. Whatever evidence there was. 

 in the customs or in language of the aborigines, from the time 

 that the first voyagers visited these shores, led to the conclusion 

 that their ancestors knew nothing better than the catamarans of the 

 Tasmanians or the bark canoes of the Australians. In any theory 

 as to the origin of the natives of Australia, one fundamental element 

 must be that the ancestors of these savages reached Australia or 

 Tasmania by land ; or if the land connection was not continuous, the 

 intervening channels were such as could be traversed by vessels no 

 better than the catamarans or canoes above mentioned. He quoted 

 many geological facts, all of which tended to show that an immense 

 period of time was one of the elements of any solution of the prob- 

 lem, and that during that period the Australians had been isolated 

 from outside influence, having at the same time a continental area 

 in which to develop their institutions. The level of culture of the 

 Tasmanian had been termed the eolithic, and that of the Australians 

 might fairly be termed neolithic, or even as regards some of the 

 tribes of Central Australia bordering on the palaeolithic. The social 

 organisation of the Tasmanians was also below the level of that of 

 the Australians. Mr Howitt came to the conclusion that the 

 Australians reached their continent by a land bridge connected 

 with the Indo- Asiatic continent, or by a land extension of the 

 Austral continents to the north-west, or over some shallow channels 

 separating Australia from these lands. 



