THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. 23 



we might profitably imitate ; for they are faithful and affec- 

 tionate to those who treat them kindly ; they have rules of 

 family morality which are enforced by severe penalties ; 

 they show the greatest respect to age ; they carefully tend 

 and never desert the sick and infirm; their boys are compelled 

 to content themselves with meagre fare, and to bring the best 

 of the food which they have found and present it to the aged 

 members of the tribe and to those who have large families. 

 1 am assured by one who has had much intercourse with them 

 for thirty years that he never knew them to tell a lie, and 

 that his property was always safe in their hands ; another 

 who has been familiar with them since he was a child says : 

 " Naturally they are an affectionate, peaceful people, and, 

 considering that they have never been taught to know right 

 from wrong, their behaviour is wonderful ; I leave my house 

 open, the camp close bv, and feel the greatest confidence in 

 them." 



Then, again, although the material civilisation of the world 

 was commenced by the race of Ham, yet the task soon fell 

 from their hands, for morally they were unfit for it ; for the 

 conservation and first dissemination of a pure and ennobling 

 religion we are indebted to the race of Shem ; while the sons 

 of Japheth have gone forth to rule the earth and the sea 

 "audax lapeti genus" and to spread abroad the blessings 

 of good government and the arts and inventions of an 

 enlightened age to the remotest lands. The Harnites, on the 

 other hand, have continued to sink in the social scale, have 

 been persecuted and oppressed by the other races and thus 

 debased ; and whenever, as in Australia, the sky above and 

 the earth beneath have conspired to render the means of life 

 to them meagre and precarious, there the process of decay 

 has been accelerated, and physically their condition has been 

 very low ; but still, among their social institutions, we have 

 this evening, I trust, seen traces of their having once enjoyed 

 a better state of things. Would that we had a full record of 

 what they really are before they pass entirely away from 

 among us ! 



THE CHAIRMAN (D, Howard, Esq., !\C.S., &C;)- - I am sure that 

 all present would have been glad if the author of the paper could 

 have been here to receive our thanks for the very interesting and 

 valuable information lie lias been the means of placing 1 before us 011 



