president's address — SECTION G. 153 



familiar forms. This fact is of the greatest importance. 

 There is another fact which also is full of promise. Up to a 

 certain point on the Fly River, the great stream which Sir 

 William has navigated and explored to a distance of 600 

 miles from its mouth, there are settled agricultural tribes ; 

 but above that point the people seem to be nomad hunters, 

 though it seems likely that there are also settled tribes in the 

 country back from the river. These nomads come down to 

 the river banks at a certain season of the year and plant food, 

 remaining for some months on the ground, and hving in 

 rudely constructed tem])orary huts. Here, then, we have 

 nomad tribes on their way to agricultural settlement, and 

 their customs will present points of special interest and value. 

 I may add that Sir AVilliam and his staff lose no opportunity 

 of collecting information of all kinds. His splendid reports 

 abound in vivid narrative and description, and they are full 

 of valuable facts. They have appendices also on the flora 

 and fauna of the country, vocabularies of the dialects, maps 

 and drawings, which, like all the work he is doing, are 

 thoroughly well done. Sir William Macgregor is a man of 

 whom we should all be proud. 



It only remains for me to notice two extremely valuable 

 books touching our own Australasian field, which have been 

 published since our last meeting — the Rev. Dr. Codrington's 

 admirable Avork on the Melanesian Tribes which was issued 

 from the Clarendon Press, and the Maori-Polynesian Com- 

 parative Dictionary, by Mr. Edward Tregear of New 

 Zealand, a Vice-President of this Association. His dictionary 

 gives the existing related forms of words common to New 

 Zealand and the Polynesian Islands : it is copious, scholarly, 

 accurate, and altogether of the very highest value. 



