careful attention has been paid by
competent scholars to the musical Maori language, it can hardly
be claimed that the Australian family of languages has ever
been scientifically studied, though there is a heap of printed
material--small grammars and lists of words--<i>rudis
indigestaque moles</i>. There is no doubt that the
vocabularies used in different parts of Australia and Tasmania
varied greatly, and equally little doubt that the languages, in
structure and perhaps originally in vocabulary, were more or
less connected. About the year 1883, Professor Sayce, of
Oxford, wrote a letter, which was published in <i>The
Argus</i>, pointing out the obligation that lay upon the
Australian colonies to make a scientific study of a vanishing
speech. The duty would be stronger were it not for the
distressing lack of pence that now is vexing public men.
Probably a sum of L300 a year would suffice for an educated
inquirer, but his full time for several years would be needed.
Such an one should be trained at the University as a linguist
and an observer, paying especial attention to logic and to
Comparative Philology. Whilst the colonies neglect their
opportunities, and Sibylla year by year withdraws her offer,
perhaps "the inevitable German" will intervene, and in a
well-arranged book bring order out of the chaos of vocabularies
and small pamphlets on the subject, all that we have to trust
to now.

The need of scientific accuracy is strong. For the purposes of
this Dictionary I have been investigating the origin of words,
more or less naturalised as English, that come from aboriginal
Australian, in number between seventy and a hundred. I have
received a great deal of kind assistance, many people taking
much trouble to inform me. But there is a manifest lack of
knowledge. Many supplied me with the meanings of the words as
used in English, but though my appeal was scattered far and
wide over Australia (chiefly through the kindness of the
newspapers), few could really give the origin of the words.
Two amongst the best informed went so far as to say that
Australian words have no derivation. That doctrine is hard to
accept. A word of three syllables does not spring complete
from the brain of an aboriginal as Athene rose fully armed from
the head of Zeus.

It is beyond all doubt that the vocabularies of the Aborigines
differed widely in different parts. Frequently, the English
have carried a word known in one district