THE STONE AGE SAVAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18760, 13 January 1923, Page 13

THE STONE AGE SAVAGE

STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINE. A REALLY BACKWARD RACE. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 12. At the Town Hull to-night Sir Baldwin Bpenccr, lecturing under tho auspices of tno Australasian Association for tho Advancement of Science on " Life of the Slone Ago Savage,” said that Australia was now tho only part of the world in which it was possible to study a really backward race that had not passed beyond tho stage of tho genuine early stone ago savage. It was true there were other races, such as those of Polynesia, who had not reached the metal stage, hut they had developed far beyond the culture level of the Australian aborigine, and they were able to hold llieir own, when they came into contact with Europeans. A still more backward people were the Tasmanians. An adequate account of their customs and beliefs would have formed si document of incalculable value to students iaud to tho early history of mankind, but ■our near ancestors hurried them and harried (hern to their doom with scarcely a thought of the grievous wrong tney were ■doing, not only to a simple, helpless people, but to posterity. It must, however, ho remembered that both the Tasmanian and Australian aborigines, though backward, we I'd far from being primitive, and that probably a greater gap separated them from the really primitive man than from the most highly developed race. Of the old stone ago races of the world ire know little save for a few remnants of their skeletons that had been preserved; their stone implements and, in some cases, their works of art. The exact relationship Lotween those races and tho Australians ■was dillicult to say. If tho Australians Iliad lioconio extinct before lift came into ■contact with them all wo would have had lo Judge of their culture w'ould have been ptrnaps a few skulls, revealing a wonderful variation in size and form, and some rock paintings, which were not comparable in their execution with those executed by other rude peoples of prehistoric) Europe. There had been many theories formed ns to tho origin of the Australians, but none were quite convincing. Tho most important point to ho remembered was that for long ages Australia had been cut off from tho Eurasian and all other land masses by barriers which served to prevent the mil ranee of any higher forms of mammalian life, ft was quite possible that the physical separation of (ho island continent, together •wifi the unfavourable climatic conditions which Professor Griffith Taylor had shown tq exist in Northern Australia at tho time of the great migrations of tho early human laces, were taking’ place across tho more favoured land route lo tho north. This may have served to isolate in Australia the remnants and descendants oi a very early liurnan race, just as it certainly isolated and preserved those of other forms of life now extinct elsewhere. This would mean that the early aborigines had reached Australia with a knowledge of how to make and use ■o: rtuiu primitive implements, and at a cultural level whi Ti w o may suppose to fiavo been akin to that of some storm ago people such as the Cromagnons. In tho course of tho long agrs which had since elapsed they had developed along certain fines, elaborating complicated rituals, customs, and beliefs, but at tho same time remaining stone ago savages as wo knew them now. ft was, ho said, greatly to bo regretted that opportunity bad not been taken earlier lo learn as much as was possible concerning tho Australian aborigines, but it stood to the credit of the Labour Party that it was tho first to recognise the States' obligation to these people, and to tako stops to establish a special department to care for them and watch over their interests. Tho lecture was followed by a talk upon, lantern slides, films, and phonograph records illustrating tho daily life of (ho Australian aborigines and their :ustoms and ceremonials, taking tho nudimro further back into the history of the stono age than was possible with any other section of the human race.