232 JOHN FRASER. 



Grammar of their language was printed in Sydney in 1834, at the 

 " Herald Office, Lower George Street. " A few years previously, 

 Mr. Threlkeld had translated the Gospel by St. Luke into the 

 same language. This translation remained in manuscript, and had 

 disappeared ; recently I discovered that it still exists and is now 

 in the Public Library of Auckland. I am glad to be able to inform 

 you that this work, and the Grammar, and some smaller fruits of 

 Mr. Threlkeld's labours on that language, will shortly be published 

 by the Government Printing Office, Sydney. The volume will be 

 the most- important that has yet appeared on an Australian lan- 

 guage. But it deals with only one dialect, and, for the purposes 

 of comparative grammar, more languages than one are required. 

 In searching for another Grammar, I remembered that Mr. Hale, 

 the philologist of the United States' Exploring Expedition (1838- 

 42), when he was in this colony, got access to the Rev. William 

 Watson, missionary to the aborigines at " Wellington Valley," 

 and that Mr. Watson had drawn up for him " an account of the 

 most important peculiarities of the Wiraduri language, modelled 

 as nearly as possible on the Grammar of Mr. Threlkeld, for the 

 purpose of comparison." Further search disclosed the fact that, 

 as early as 1835, a Dictionary and a Grammar of that language 

 had been prepared, and the Gospel by St. Luke had been trans- 

 lated. How valuable these materials would now be, to illustrate 

 the Awabakal of Lake Macquarie ! but Mr. Watson had no rela- 

 tives in this colony, and on his death his MSS. were sold as waste 

 paper ; so I am told. Fortunately, the late Archdeacon Giinther 

 of Mudgee, where a dialect of the same language was spoken, 

 collected a copious Vocabulary of that dialect and wrote a Gram- 

 mar of it. The Vocabulary I found to be in the hands of his son, 

 the present Archdeacon of Camden, and I hope that I shall be 

 able to get it published ; the Grammar was, many years ago, sent 

 to the home country, and I fear that it cannot now be recovered. 



The next labourers in the field of Australian grammar were the 

 Lutheran Missionaries, Messrs. Teichelmann (E. G.) and Sehiir- 

 mann (C. W.); in 1840 they published a " Grammar, Vocabulary, 

 and Phrase-book" of the aboriginal language of the Adelaide tribe. 

 Then, in 1856, appeared the primer " Gurre Kamilaroi," by the 

 Rev. W. Ridley. Mr. Ridley, who was a man of rare devotedness 

 and self-denial, went among the aborigines of Liverpool Plains and 

 shared the privations of their wandering life, in order that he 

 might learn their language, and so be able to tell them the message 

 of the Gospel. In 1866 (2nd edition, 1875), our Government 

 Printing Office issued his book on the " Kamilaroi, Dippil, and 

 Turrubul languages." I do not know that, since 1875, any other 

 book has appeared on the grammar of our languages. But there 

 have been some valuable short papers in various journals, such as 



