42 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
liowever, had been completely abandoned in favour of their old squalid camp in 
the river bed. One reason I was told for their abandonment was the absence of 
the sanitary precautions which become more necessary in the case of a permanent 
habitation than in one the site of which can be changed in a few minutes. 
Altogether I failed to observe any features in the condition of the natives 
that might be considered evidence of an abiding improvement either mentally, 
morally or physically, which have resulted from the labours of the Missionaries. 
Rather the reverse in fact. 
I do not doubt that under the stimulus of the presence and example of 
civilising elements they may be led temporarily into ways that conform, outwardly 
at least, to our ideas of decency and that they can, to the same extent, be 
restrained from much that is objectionable to our sense of propriety; but, as has 
been shown so frequently in Australia, no reliance whatever can be placed on the 
permanency of the change, and, as I have indicated in another section, it seems 
absolutely certain that the ways of civilisation bring attendant evils in the way of 
deterioration of physique and particulary of liability to pulmonary consumption 
that far out-weigh the little good that is done in other directions. Even the 
half-castes brought up from childhood in decent, comfortable, civilised homes and 
educated up to the point of reading and writing, sooner or later show the same 
intolerance of, and repugance to, the restraints of civilisation as the full-blooded 
blacks, and, like the Reverend John Greedy in another region, they are ever prone 
to relapse eventually into the freedom, licence and squalor of the life of their own 
race. With many such relapses are periodic ; the fit comes upon those who are 
in the service of the whites ; they deliberately leave behind their civilised clothing, 
join their tribe and resume its ways for a time, returning after a period to seek 
service with their former masters until once more the restless impulse impels 
them to go forth into the bush again to have what they call a “spell.” 
Tribal Government. 
If it was difiicult to arrive at reliable conclusions on the subject of territorial 
distribution of the tribes, it was still more difiicult to obtain satisfactory infor¬ 
mation in respect to the vaguely constituted powers and privileges of persons of 
authority. I must consequently refer the reader to the remarks upon this subject 
of Mr. Gillen, whose opportunities have been so much greater than my own and 
whose statements relate to the Arunta tribe and particularly to the Arunta Ilpma - 
section of it. 
