454 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



Far more effort and devotion has been employed in uplifting the 

 South Sea Islanders. With regard to the ill consequences of the 

 European occupation, there is reason to think that by cruelty, 

 negligence and the communication of disease and moral corruption, 

 it has reduced the native population by three-fourths. Calcula- 

 tions made by Mr. Westgarth, in 1846, seemed to show that the 

 density of population in the so-called settled parts was about 1 in 20, 

 though the population in those parts had certainly been reduced by 

 one-half since the beginning of the English invasion. In other 

 words, the average density of population 120 years ago may be 

 taken as about 1 in 10 square miles, which would allow 300,000 as 

 the population of the whole continent. As bearing out this calcula- 

 tion, there are at the present time about 75,000 aborigines in the 

 far north, in an area which is about one-fourth of the Common- 

 wealth. 



Late in the day though it be, some remedy must be sought. 

 It will be found to lie in making the whole of the remnant a national 

 responsibility under national control. Ample reserves should be 

 set apart for them, stocked with cattle and otherwise industrially 

 developed, and on these reserves humane and statesmanlike efforts 

 should be made for the uplifting of a race which was Australian 

 long before we were. 



9.— AN ETHNOLOGIST IN GERMAN NEW GUINEA. 

 By A. B. LEWIS, Ph. D. 



(Abstract.) 



The writer was in German New Guinea from August, 1909, to 

 November, 1910. During that time he visited many native 

 villages from the Dutch boundary on the west to the British 

 boundary on the east, and also ascended the Kaiserin Augusta 

 River in the German New Guinea Company's steamer " Siar " for 

 about 200 miles, reaching a higher point than any before reached 

 since the river was first explored in 1885. He also visited a number 

 of places in New Britain. Comparatively little is known of the 

 interior of German New Guinea. This is due chiefly to the moun- 

 tainous character of the coastal area. Except at the mouth of the 

 large rivers there is everywhere a coastal range of mountains, which 

 in some places ascends directly from the sea shore, but in other 

 places leaves a narrow coastal plain. Back of this range are the 

 valleys of the Markham, Ramu and Kaiserin Augusta Rivers, 

 forming together an almost continuous depression from the Huon 

 Gulf to the Dutch boundary. 



Physically the natives along the coast vary considerably, both 

 as regards colour and stature. These differences are often found in 

 the same or in a neighbouring group, and there seems to be no very 

 definite distinction between the eastern and western natives in 

 this respect. The inland people, however, are considerably smaller 

 than the coast people on the average. 



