AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1649, 16 January 1913, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.

HABITS AND RITES. EXPLORATION IN NORTHERN j TERRITORY. i, •. ~~—.. | RETURN OF PROFESSOR BALDWIN , SPENCER. . 1 After a year's absence in the Northern | Territory, Professor Baldwin Spencer, of tho Melbourne University, who has been waking further, scientific investigations into tho habits, customs, and ceremonies of the natives along the Alligator Eivers (there are three of them), and on Bathurst and Melvillo Islands, arrived in Sydney on January 1 by tho steamer Eastern from Darwin, and left for Melbourne by tho express tiyo days later. During tho course of on interesting chat VEith a Daily Telegraph" reporter, Professor Spencer said Ee had been travelling about the Territory-a great deal, including .trips to Bathnrst and Melville Islands, down the Alligator '.Rivers, as well as taking a long, motor trip with the Adlmnistratoj of the Territory, covering about 1200 miles of more or less wild country. "If any of the people down south imagine _ that :the officials in the JNortnern Territory are having a picnic," 1 saw tho professor, "they are labouring i under a very great mistake. • An Exciting Time. _ first" time I went acrqss to MelI set out iu a small lugger witn a man who is known as Joe Cooper, n great buffalo hunter. He is practically tho King of Melville Island. . Wo sot out irom Darwin ■ early in Slarch, on a very wild night. The same evening somo of tuo steamers aud other boats leaving Darwin turned back on account of the very Heavy squalls.'. However, Cooper went oh, and wo had a pretty exciting time; For three days we were knocking .about in ™ sea, traversing only a short distance of 60 miles. , On Melvillo Island I saw some' extremely interesting native ceremonies,, especially one concerned with the burial of i a dead native. The; natives on these isI Janus are about the wildest of the aboriginals, and . also physically tho finest - built. Their ceremonies, of some of which i f secured .kiiieinatoKraph records,' are ex- . trcmely wild and picturesque. . later on I 1 went to tlie_ Alligator Kivers to, investigate the native tribes there. Oil this occasion I .was accomDttiiied bv a verv wellknown Territoriaii—Paddy Cahill-who. lives in the wildest part with, his wife, and has' Wonderful influence over tho natives. l Caliill has been in the Territory, practically, all his life. He and Joe Cooper are : !be two great buffalo hunters there. Cooiwr was the first inan to shoot the buffalo from horseback. Up to this time they used to stalk them-'on foot, 1 and in this pursuit Cooper was an adept. Now horses are trained so that they'.will run-right up to the buffalo, and .when th 9 rider fires the horse jumps out of the way. I had a very interesting time going from Darwili to the; Alligator Hivers, making the journey in a small oil launch about 20 feet long. .When I got'on board 'I found the crew consisted of three blnek- ' boys, one of whom, a half-caste Japanese, was supposed; to uiiderstaud-.ithe running of the boat.-''-When'-we were-, s'oine ,w»y out. of Darwifi, L found that none of the crew had ever.been to tho Alligator Eivers Wore. . There was no chart on board, .and wo simply had to. lug the 6hore as closely as we could/' •. ' Stuck on a Mud Bank. : "All went well till tho second night out, when wo; got stuck on a mud bank,, so that when tho tide went" out'we'worolett high and dry. - WSiwent on ..the'next day; Making for a distant point, and lor two l4.amls, which 1 knew were' some little distance from the mouth of the river. When•l showed an ordinary map. of.tho 'i'erri-, tory I liad to tho boys', I scon, found out that they had not the slightest idea of what a map meant. I tried to point out ilie. course to.; t}iom. on tho map, ;but. it mado no, difference • whether, they were -looking at it right sldo or wrong side ud. Wo made for the narrow strait-between tho two islands,.and in a very short time ran on to a rocky reef. The boat began to bump'about, but fortunately the tide was nsmg, and after. some time we got through safely.. \l\ found afterwards that wa ought to have: gone round , tho northern end: of the islands, instead of trying .to go-between thefn. Then we encountered a further difficulty, owin 2 ;to the low-lying nature of the coast, which is fringed all round with mangroves, to find im opening to the Alligator Kivers. At last,we managed to get into tho right one of the three rivers, going up it !for 80 nules, until tve.eamo to Paddy Cphill's station. There I spent nearly two months investigating: the -habits o£ .tho natives and -watching them perform' their -ceremonies. -With Cahill's help I goined as much information as I could in regard to their customs and beliefs, which are extremely interesting, and differ in certain Tespecta from those of the more'southern, tribes. s Aboriginal Reserve. , "I am specially anxious to ..tie thisldistnct, bccauso there aro vei'y Jargo numbers of nativesi inhabiting it. I thought it would probably form a very good abor- •? for the natives in that part of the Territory, and be a very considerr" w , iUl tho aboriginal problem. • Calull, who -has" very great innattr«; has already been nmwinte.i temporarily as superintendent L ll S' : / Ul ?' that 1 came down Wk JS A , i,A II 'K I 't<> r . B |v cr, and up the South Alligator with Caliill, and then overland -until we etruck the railway lino between Pine Creek and Darwin ' wTf r ol^i^ d «. m °st interesting motor trip with tho Administrator 'of the as \ te i®S ra ph. line as'far w ft K Wlr Tw i Crs ,' thon oas tward until wo struck , Booroloola, on'tho Gulf of US tho important position mot" traffic will take m opening up tho Territory At presont there aro practically no'roads/and yon just follow- the rough tracks and cros9 the country as 1.-est you tan ' Wo were continually stuck upby creeks and time after time had to nut tile chafn ind /tackle on, and spend hours in dragging' tan °t a l h r Eh Sal L d and up steoD J™ ; One occasion it took us eiirhr hours solid, work pulling on the chains to get tho car out of one® creek 7 On»n'm* m,T°f P (t n Eov f n IloUl ' s iu levering the car out of the sand and working corduroy roads m order to traverse half a mile in the deep earn We realised after all om experiencea tl/at it was quite possible hr white men to do pretty hnrn ~i,i thafthn b'° ? rrit ° ry ' f tt fact >' w « tliat the harder wo worked the better we TiT+U 11 . ? • ' a ? d ,, tllat is > at all events, Wt p nor °[ Territory, the'ex: perienco of everybody. Below. Freezing Point. There is one thing that strikes you very much aboiA the Territory, and that is that, though it lies well within tho tropica, it is not, strictly speaking, a tropical country. During tho summer months tile climato is very hot, very damp, and very trying, but during the winter months —at. all events outside Darwin—in the interior, the climato is excellent; hot during the day, but very cold at night, the thermometer sometimes falling below freezing point. Wo wore wakened in the morning on tho Koper Itiver to find that any water that had been exposed during the night wns covered with a crust of ice, and tho fact that there is this comparatively cool winter climato will make a very great difference to the opening up \ of tho interior of tho territory.' Aboriginal Problem. "So far as the aboriginal question is concerned, I cannot, of course, say any- , titling definite until I havo reported to < the Commonwealth Government, but I , think it is possible that a scliemo may bo devised whereby tho aboriginals may bo , bothl ijroserved and bccoino useful mem- j bers of the community. The question is a very difficult one. and will requite cnreftil ■ handling;. They are a very interesting . race," concluded the "and in < their customs aro probably the most ' primitive human beings existing at flic > present time, which makes it all the more j difficult to dcnl with- them when they . come into contact with a higher civilian' . tioa,"- A