Melbourne Apr.4.07
My dear Howitt,
I must apologize for any long silence but I have been very busy since my return from New Zealnd. Some time agao I examined the spear throwers about which your correspondent enquired. Both of them are Victorian and each of them has the 'blade' part shaped thus [drawing] in section & the handle part round. This is the characteristic form of Victorian and I think N.S.W. - at least Murray R. specimens. I do not quite know what to suggest in regard to your anti-Lang papers. It would
be a very difficult matter to condense them - this would make them incapable of being understood by the ordinary reader. The most convincing thing would be a very short article somewhat as follows -
Dr Howitt's reply to 'Messrs' Lang and Thomas.
I hereby certify that after fifty years patient enquiry into the organisation, customs & beliefs of the Australian Aborigines my firm conviction is that what I have written is true and that in as much as my work is the result of personal observation & not a matter of guess work I see no reason to alter my opinions and I further beg to state that the two individuals above mentioned are a couple of unscrupulous and also unutterable idiots.
However as you cannot well do this I suppose you will have to condense somewhat. I am not quite clear as to exactly which of the articles the letter refers.
I am now in harness again and if you would like any suggestions from an 'outsider' as to possible condensation I will gladly go through it and wont keep you waiting as I have done in the present case - or better still if you are coming down to town for a day or two & would stay with me we could put a quiet evening or two into the work & soon see what could be done.
That awful man Thomas has evidently taken up the Australians. He has recently published one book on the social Organisation and another on 'the
Natives of Australia" giving a general account of them. He evidently has an intense dislike to Gillen & myself - constantly throwing disparaging remarks but at the same time using our material wholesale often in fact usually without any acknowledgement. He promises a large work on the subject with a complete bibliography & I have a kind of feeling that he is working with Gregory.
I hope things go well with you & am very glad that the Adelaide meeting was such a success.
We are very busy in the University with a big increase in students. With kind regards to Miss Howitt
Yours very sincerely
W. Baldwin Spencer.
