LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18183, 20 September 1924, Page 16

LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC.

LECTURE BY DR. IVENS

The "Languages of the Pacific" was the subject of an interesting lecture delivered by Dr. W. G. Ivens at Canterburv College last evening. Dr. Ivens is an old boy of Christ's College, and a graduate of Canterbury College, and has done much valuable research work in the languages of the Pacific.

Dr. C. Chilton presided over a good attendance.

The speaker began by describing the languages of Polynesia and Melanesia, where "the native race is still in full force. Dr. Ivens said that he had already published a dictionary of Iho language .spoken in tne Solomon Islands. and he intended to complete this work.' and also to make a collection of the folk-lore and of the songs. lie also referred to the stone curiosities which were being found from time to time, which possessed great value for the study of anthropology. In dealing with the language of Melanesia in detail, Dr. Ivens said the name meant literally "black island." This language was spoken in the islands off the north-east coast of Australia. The other language spoken was Papuan, which wa3 said to bo so difficult that no white man. could possibly understand it. Melanesian was en^v iu comparison. Plieie existed various forms of both these languages in different localities. In other islands, again, the language spoken was Polynesian, which was very like Maori. However, the majority of people in the Melanesia group of islands spoke Melanesian. There were three Governments in Melanesia-. A portion was under direct control from Melbourne, another had its headquarters in Fiji, while the other was nominally under the control of Spain, but really undej nobody's control. _ In referring to the configuration of the islands, the lecturer spoke of the numbers of volcanoes, hot springs, and ! frequent occurrence of earthquakes. In some places the rainfall was as much as 350 inches a year. He described the Melanesians as a sturdy, strong people with brown skins. Somo of the people lived on eoral re<jfs surrounded bv open water. These people lived perpetuallv in canoes. They were also- wonderful swimmers. In comparing the Melanesian and Polynesian tongues the lecturer said that if Melanesian be likened to Anglo-Saxon, then Polynesian was modern English. _ I think that the Melanesian has a better command of his language than the average New Zealander has of his, continued the speaker, "and he lias a large vocabulary with special termß, where we have only one word. There were no instances of the easy tropical life; everyone was very busy. Some of the soil was very rich, and cocoanuts grew in profusion. The «reen cocoanut was delicious, and very nice to drink. The natives did. not eat the ripe nut as the people ot New Zealand did. Some of the coaonut palms grew to a height of one hundred feet and their branches had a stretch of thirty feet. Other staple foods were the yam, breadfruit, and taro. Nearly all the work in the languages had been done by missionaries who had been compelled to learn them to carry t out their work, and they had produced somo very fine research work. The lecturer was accorded a vote ot "thanks on the motion of Mr W. Douglass Andrews, seconded by Professor A. i "WalL '