PACIFIC STUDIES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 269, 7 August 1920, Page 12

PACIFIC STUDIES

(By Dr. G. I{. Scholeiield.)

In view of the growing importance of politics 'in the FUeific, tapart altogether from thV responsibilities that New Zealand herself has underta'iftii for the eavo of; two titanches of the Jfolynesian race beyond our own shores, it is quite time that Pacific studies had a place at-our University. Mr. Downie Stewart has brought the matter under the notice of the Minister of Education, and has shlown that of our two great partners in the coming problems, California has al■ready a Department of Pacific Studies and Sydney has begun with a professorship of Oriental languages. The population question in the Pacific is the. most serious economic question civilisation is likely to encounter for a generation or two ahead. It is developing witli increasing difficulty and bitterness at our own doors, and involves already Canada, the United States, New Zealand, and Australia on the one side; Japan, China, and India on the other. ' The occupation and development, of the Pacific islands will bs our most useful contribution to the solution of tlie problem. But. we can only do that properly and efficiently >by going into the matter:wholeheartedly, earnestly,' and at once, with the best equipment of scientific knowledge that we can secure. Our university colleges should proceed at once to provide for the study of the Pacific under the'following, heads:—l. History and economic geography. 2. Native races, language, and principles of .administration. 3. Economic conditions and trade. 4. Asiatic migration. The course of lectures which I have : just given at Canterbury College, Otago University, and Victoria College covers tho study merely as an introduction, It is only a matter of a few years, I am sure, when each of the ; colleges must have provision for Pacific studies. Somo fire obviously more keenly interested than others, either from geographical reasons or from other associations, such as the possession of Pacific collections. But on all it is equally incumbent to foster the study of tire Pacific as the world in which we live and in which we 6hall have to face our greatest problems. Wo cannot afford to lose any. time in planing our young people on as good a footing as those of California to grapple with problems that we shall have to face in common.