218 THE EEGULATION OF NUMBERS 



especially when the next youngest was not able to walk.' l Of the 

 aborigines of the Eiver Darling we are told that ' it seems to have 

 been the custom to kill many of the children directly after birth, 

 to save trouble and privation in time of drought, when long 

 distances must be travelled, in the search for food and water ', 2 

 and the same proximate cause of infanticide is mentioned by 

 Beveridge. 3 Of the women in the Port Lincoln district it is said 

 that they put forward as the cause of infanticide the fact that they 

 ' cannot suckle and carry two children together ' ; 4 similar 

 reasons are said to be given by the women of Central Australia. 5 

 Speaking of the natives of Port Darwin Foelsche says that the 

 reason for infanticide is that ' too many children encumber the 

 parents in travelling about for food '. 6 It is also worthy of note 

 in connexion with Howitt's statement about there being at times 

 a dread of over-population that, according to Spencer and Gillen, 

 this is not the case at any rate in Central Australia ; 7 according 

 to Curr, however, * in many tribes there is a great fear of a want 

 of food arising from over-population '. 8 Among the tribes of 

 Port Lincoln ' the number of children reared by each family is ... 

 very limited, rarely exceeding four ', and ' if a mother has children 

 in rapid succession . . . the young infant is killed '. 9 In the 

 Dieyerie tribe about 30 per cent, of the children are destroyed at 

 birth. 10 In the neighbourhood of Port Darwin children are killed 

 ' where a woman has more than three or four '. 11 In Central 

 Australia 'each mother only rears, upon an average, two children'. 12 

 Among the Northern tribes of Central Australia the number of 

 children is kept down by infanticide to two or three. 13 



Similar evidence is forthcoming for other races of this group. 

 Thus of the Puelches Guinnard says that ' among these almost 

 primitive creatures, children are not nearly so numerous as might 

 be imagined, for the existence of the new born infant is submitted 

 to the judgment of the father and mother, who decide on its life or 



1 Howitt, Native Tribes, p. 749. 2 Bonney, J. A. I , vol. xiii, p. 125. 



3 Beveridge, loc. cit., p. 26. 4 Wilhelmi, loc. cit., p. 181. See also Eylmann, 



loc. cit., p. 261. 5 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes, p. 608. 6 Foelsche, 



loc. cit., p. 192. 7 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes, p. 264. 



8 Curr, Australian Race, vol. i, p. 76. In another work, however, the same author 

 says that he often spoke to the natives on this subject, and is ' sure that the idea 

 of over-population never entered their heads ' (Recollections, p. 263). Smyth 

 (loc. cit., vol. i, p. 52) thinks that there may be some fear of over-population. 



9 Schurmann, loc. cit., p. 223. 10 Gason, loc. cit., p. 8. " Foelsche, 

 loc. cit., p. 192. n Eyre, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 376. I3 Mathew, Two 

 Representative Tribes, p. 165. 



