ORIGIN OF THE MAORI.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 230, 22 June 1908, Page 2

ORIGIN OF THE MAORI.

THE PAST AMD THE PRESENT,

INTERESTING LECTURE BY DR. BUCK. (BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Auckland, Juno 20. Lecturing on tho Maori lost night, Dr. Buck (Native Health Officer) said it was not until the'-, arrival of tho Europeans that tlio bacillus taihoa attacked the' Maori. . Even at tho present time, he took religion very earnestly. "In ISI4, Marsden preached his first sermon to the Maori pagan, and if wo are-to accept' Bishop Nelignn's statement, in 1914 the Maori clergymen will prcach to tho European pagan. I said civilisation has done no good for the Maori. I do not blame the pakelia. I blame civilisation. .At tho present time, it is only a theory they do not carry out. Ihero would not be tho depths of poverty there are if it was carried out. Thero was too much for tho Maori to assimilate in the beginning. Going further back into remote antiquity, tho Polynesians at one time foimed part of a very ancient gangetic race. Later they havo como into contact with a Soinitic or Jewish race. Between 500 and 400 8.C., the Aryans pushed the Poly'nesians into the many island sea. Now oral tradition, though marvellous in the case of tho Polynesians, cannot tell us of the infancy of the race, any more than any of us can recount our own history from the moment we entered the.world, but language, customs, and bodily conformation are records more enduring than tablets of brass, i u phase of the question was dealt witli first in an interesting 'manner, showing the contact of tho Polynesians with other races, and to .conform the theory advanced as to his own origin, tho scicnce of anthropology, added Dr. Buck, found race differences most clearly in stature and proportions of the limbs, conformation of the skull and brain, the character of the features, etc., and ( mental and moral temperament. The eastern Polynesians were tho second tallest race in the world, and they could not, therefore, be derived from the Malay or races, both of whom were fort Their skulls in shape were longheaded like the northern division of the Caucasians. Tho brain was large, and in the first class as regards size, as in the Caucasian and. Mongol, divisions. The lecturer drew other similar comparisons, adding that tile nose was somewhat flattened, .probably from the habit of rubbing noses. "The tali, well-made figures of the Polynesians, with well developed calves. and oval, pleasing faces, reminded tho early European explorers of their own people," said Dr. Buck. " The Gausasic theory is now accepted by most authorities, : and_ that being so, the Polynesians are Caucasians of tho same division as, yourselves, the Anglo-Saxons, who enjoy tho honour of being tho highest-developed branch of that division. The Polynesians wero tho forerunners'of tho Aryan speaking peoplo. they broke the bounds of this ancient home, and, overcoming all obstacles in field, forest, and flood, plunged through mountain passes to the ocean to carry tho typo of tho Caucasian over, the islands, of the sea. coast and south till no more islands lay empty beforo ;hem, and they had no more lands to conquer, though they sought them in the Antarctic 3cean. Whether my ancestors camo through tho north-west passes into India or down ;hrough the'ancient empire of Irania it little matters. In one of these countries they :amo into contact with Egyptian, Semitic, md Aryan influences, all of, which factors idded to tho evolution of the Maori. In Sumatra or Java they came into contact with mother type of Caucasic influence. They net with the Indinesians, who had been more n contact with the Mongols, and in the subleQuent. mixturo of two Caucasian races they ;avo to the.Polynesian the cult of tho green-it-b'iie 'and'tattooing:"