I have the honour to submit to your Lordship a report on the best means of promoting the civilization of the aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, which report is founded upon a careful study of the language, prejudices, and traditional customs of this people.

Feeling anxious to render this report as complete as possible, I have delayed transmitting it to your Lordship until the latest possible period. Portions of it have in the interim been laid before some of the local Governments in Australia, and a few of the suggestions contained in it have been already acted upon.

But as so small a portion of Australia is as yet occupied, and the important task of so conducting the occupation of new districts as to benefit the aborigines in the greatest possible degree yet remains to be performed, I have thought that it would be agreeable to your Lordship to be put in possession of all such facts relating to this interesting subject as are at present known.

None but general principles, equally applicable to all portions of the continent of Australia, are embodied in this report, and I am particularly solicitous that that portion of it which commences at the twenty-first paragraph should receive consideration from your Lordship, as the whole machinery required to bring this plan into operation now exists in the different Australian Colonies, and its full development would entail no expense whatever upon either the Home or local Governments.