AMONG NATIVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 9

AMONG NATIVES.

ENGLISHWOMAN'S LIFE

RETURNS AFTER FIFTY YEARS.

Wearing the clothes of another century, Mrs. Daisy Bates, who went to Australia as a correspondent of "The Times," mid remained to devote her life to the care and study of the aboriginal tribes, recently paid her first visit to Sydney since IS9O. Mrs. Bate*, who is now in her Sl*t year, also visited Canberra, where she was the guest of Lady Cowrie at Government House. The purpose of the visits was to present to t-hs Commonwealth 90 folios comprising the record of her work among the Australian aborigines.

This vast store of knowledge of the customs, legends and dialects of native tribes was originally scribbled on little pieces of paper by lam plight or firelight. These-original note«, row yellowing and dog-eared, are bound in with the amplified typescript presented to the .Government.

Many of the tribes Mrs. Bates studied are now extinct.

Her book. "The Passing of the Aborigines," published a couple of years ago. contained only a small portion of the material which she gathered tirelessly as she lived in her tent on the outskirts of native cani]>s, <at by flickering camp fires, or watched initiation ceremonies taboo to white men and women. On her has been conferred the 'bloodbrotherhood of primitive tribes, and she speaks ISS native dialects.

Mrs. Bates said that she considered the greatest success of her work among the aborigines, who called her Kabbarli (grandmother), is her record of initiation ceremonies; records that no other person has been able to obtain.

"Xo anthropologist has them," she eaid with justifiable pride, and added: "I am no anthropologist, you know."

Forty-year-old Costume.

She makes her white silk blouses by hand, but the black broadcloth costume, with its gored skirt sweeping the ground, ill which she visited Sydney, is more than forty years old. The cloth is neither worn nor faded, and the costume was made in Perth by a tailor who had been associated with Worth in Pa ris.

For her bush wardrobe—"which T did not want to date" —he made tailored navy blue serge costumes, tweed Xorfolk jackets and a white taffetas ballgown.

Mrs. Bates will go to Adelaide to collect camping gear and scores of packages before setting out again to work among the natives. "You can call it inv war work," she said. "I cannot knit or sew, and I feel that the twentieth century has itoo much pace for me. I hate motor cars, wireless sets and automatic lifts; 1 think of the birds, my friends, who come round my tent door, the peace of the stars and'the glow of camp fires. That is where my grandmother wisdom can be of use."