576 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION P. 



Do not find fault with me if I make no authentic statement, or 

 even any statement at all, regarding the origin and racial affinities of 

 the Australian aboriginal. My task is really to show what place he 

 occupies, in recent research. You will agree with me that it is an im- 

 portant place. You will also allow that the position of the aboriginal 

 among the: races of the world cannot finally be decided without a very 

 great deal of research in anthropology. The people forming the great 

 majority "to whom the science is a recreation might surely unite in an 

 eSort td'vsupply materials to those workers who apply themselves 

 closely-5t>o what is an arduous and sometimes, unfortunately, an ex- 

 pensiy-e task. I hope we shall hear no more about whole series of 

 beautiful and rare photographic plates meeting their destiny in the 

 melting-down furnaces of the glassworks, or accumulations of aboriginal 

 skeletons being ground down for superphosphates. 



In the universal "grab-all" for door-mats be graciously pleased 

 to pay some respect to the altar cloths of the anthropologists. 



Perhaps I ought to say, in conclusion, that the preparation of this 

 communication has been to me a relaxation — a pleasant recreation, a 

 labor of love, or something of that sort. It has not been any of these, 

 and I have no reason for concealing the truth about the matter. I 

 undertook to write the paper because I was asked to do so, and because 

 I thought it required to be done ; not because I was infatuated with 

 the subject. It has entailed much work on me, and a great deal of 

 inconvenience on others — particularly on Dr. Rogers, who, I think, 

 deserves to be regarded as joint author. It has taken time and energy 

 which could be ill spared, and which should have been devoted to other 

 ends with other aims. If, however, by anything I have said I have 

 succeeded in making some people repentant over lost opportunities, 

 and resolved to do something to help Australia — and especially South 

 Australia — to take her proper place in anthropological research, then 

 I am content. 



