MEMOIR 
37 
in search of some truly practicable policy. A scheme for 
establishing native reservations, so plausible when considered 
in the abstract, would not in his opinion work: 
‘It is useless to reserve large tracts of country with the idea of forcing 
the aboriginals to live on them. In the first place, the aboriginal in his 
natural condition is a nomad; he must wander, and it would need 
a small army of watchers to keep him anywhere where he did not want 
to stay. In the second place, every tract of country is regarded as 
belonging to some particular group, and no one who does not belong 
to that group has a right to go there or hunt over it without the per¬ 
mission of the owners. To attempt to mix different tribes on a reserve, 
even if they could be kept there, would result in constant bloodshed.’ 
The upshot is that he recommends the establishment of 
Aboriginal Stations, where under Government control the 
natives can be gradually taught to abandon their wandering 
habits, and to settle down in permanent quarters supported 
by regular food of their own growing. Those too old to be 
taught must be treated kindly, while the younger folk are to 
be gradually educated in this new way of life. He points out, 
further, that it is not enough for those who are in charge of 
such instruction to be well-meaning. They must have had 
the special training that will give them insight into mental 
conditions and cultural habits very different from their own. 
Though Spencer would thus cure the aboriginal of his 
wander-spirit, the physician was unable to heal himself, for 
he intended this expedition to the Northern Territory to be 
his last. Reviewing his work for Frazer’s benefit he says: 
‘My time there was so much occupied with routine work as Head of 
the Aboriginal Department, and I lost so much valuable time, at the 
best time of the year for travelling, owing to an accident to my leg, that 
my results are by no means what I wish they were. However, they are, 
I think, good so far as they go, and probably represent my last contribu¬ 
tion to field anthropological work, because it is not likely that I shall 
be able to go into the wilds again. Neither my wife nor myself are 
growing any younger. My wife has been most self-sacrificing in regard 
