XLIV PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



the needs are likely to be many. In this belief, gladly and grate- 

 fully, I have accepted. I am aware that a very high standard 

 has been set me by my predecessor in this office, for no one could 

 have served the interests of our Association more ably or strenu- 

 ously or conscientiously than Professor Masson. It is my pious, 

 wish to follow in his footsteps. 



Next on the occasion of this the fourteenth meeting of our 

 Association, it would surely be meet that we send a grateful greet- 

 ing to our founder, Professor Liversidge. Our latest accounts of 

 him show that he is strong and well, and after so many years of 

 strenuous teaching and organizing work is now walking the Elysian 

 fields of research. 



Next I would remind you that recently there has passed away 

 from among us one who has done a unique work for Australian 

 science, in the branch of Ethnology, F. J. Gillen. I feel I cannot 

 do better than quote the following sympathetic obituary notice 

 that has recently appeared about him in Nature, 12th August, 

 1912: — "In Australian papers which have just come to hand we 

 regret to see the death of Mr. Francis James Gillen. A.nthro- 

 pology has thus lost a conscientious and devoted worker, whose 

 world-wide reputation has been well earned in a fast- vanishing 

 field of investigation, which, unfortunatelv, attracts far too few 

 men of Mr. Gillen 's type. It is now forty-five years since he 

 entered the public service of South Australia, and his official work 

 caused him to become virtually exiled to the heart of the Aus- 

 tralian continent ; but he devoted his spare time to the study of 

 the aboriginal people among whom he lived, and it is no exaggera- 

 tion to say that he acquired a much more intimate knowledge 

 of the customs and beliefs of the most backward race of mankind 

 now in existence than all other investigators had been able to col- 

 lect ; and this wealth of accurate information was put to the best 

 use when Mr. Gillen collaborated with Professor Baldwin Spencer, 

 F.R.S., of Melbourne, and produced a series of the most discussed 

 volumes that have ever been contributed to euthnological literature. 

 The opportunities for such investigations as Mr. Gillen carried on 

 are abundant, but with the rapid intrusion of European customs 

 into every corner of the world, they will soon be gone for ever. 

 It is thus with especial gratitude that all students of mankind will 

 always regard the labours of such men as the late Mr. Gillen, 

 who have seized the opportunities presented by their daily occupa* 

 tions, and rescued for posterity an accurate knowledge of the fast- 

 vanishing customs and beliefs of primitive people." T might add 

 that he was formerly president of the ethnological section of this 

 Association. The sympathy of all of us will T know be extended to 

 those who were near and dear to him, as well as to his close friend 

 and fellow-worker. Professor Baldwin Spencer. The co-operation 



