Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria

Abstract

THE author of this work has published numerous articles on Australian anthropological subjects during the past ten years, but they have either been ignored or dismissed in a footnote by experts such as Dr. Howitt and Prof. Baldwin Spencer. A careful examination of his contributions does not give a high opinion of the author's qualifications for his task. The present volume contains a bibliography of the author's articles and some assertions as to the importance of this new contribution, of which the following sentences are specimens:—“Those portions of my book dealing with sociology,” at pp. 5–15 and 84–103, will completely revolutionise all the old school notions respecting the organisation of Australian tribes “which have been published up to this date” (p. 4). “I have adopted none of the opinions nor followed any of the methods of other Australian authors, but have struck out on my own lines “(p. 2). “Since the time of Mr. Ridley and Mr. Bridgeman down to the present day, nothing important has been added to our knowledge of the Kamilaroi organisation ” (p. 13).

Ethnological Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria.

By R. H. Mathews. Pp. xiv + 183. (Sydney: F. W. White, 1905.)