MEMOIR 
36 
lous; always he was the genial,courteous, kindly, considerate gentleman, 
using the word in the truest sense, whom his associates of the University 
knew and loved. When a show of temper or of petulance might have 
been easily understood and readily forgiven it was rarely exhibited, no 
matter how great the provocation. Perhaps his unfailing courtesy and 
considerateness towards subordinates were his most endearing human 
qualities in such surroundings. In the prosecution of his scientific 
investigations time, trouble, and personal inconvenience did not count. 
So painstaking was he that I think he excelled in scientific caution. 
To see him sitting under the “piebald” shade of a scanty-foliaged tree, 
with little shelter from the torrid sun, examining and cross-examining 
several grimy, elderly natives, who had a very limited knowledge of 
pidgin-English, patiently sorting out the information so difficult to 
secure from individuals more anxious to please the “bigfellow white- 
man” than to convey facts, was to receive an object lesson in scientific 
single-mindedness. To realize that the information so laboriously 
acquired and so meticulously noted would be checked again and again 
that there might be no error enhanced one’s admiration of the simple, 
unassuming student of his aboriginal brother. On my return to camp 
from a bush trip it was no surprise still to find him patiently cross- 
examining his “cronies”, arranging and rearranging the wax matches 
with different coloured heads, which he used to represent to his wit¬ 
nesses the varied individual relationships and groupings of family or 
totem. Often far into the warm night, by the light of a hurricane 
lamp, he would sit preparing his specimens of animals and plants for 
later more detailed examination, or for the Melbourne Museum, to 
which he was so attached and of which he was so justly proud.’ 
It remains to be noted that Spencer’s interest in the scientific 
study of the natives was in no way allowed to interfere with 
his practical efforts as their official Protector to promote their 
welfare as best might be done under conditions of heart¬ 
breaking difficulty. His reports to the Minister for External 
Affairs show with what deep concern he viewed their rapid 
degeneration under the stress of contact with the settlers, 
Asiatic as well as White; while at the same time his well- 
trained mind harbours no sentimentalism, but faces the facts 
