THE "BROWN TINGE"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 11

THE "BROWN TINGE"

FUTURE NEW ZEALANDERS"Science and history will both some day demand an explanation of the brown tinge in-the future New Zealander," said Sir Apirana Ngata in his address to the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Historical Association last evening. The present offered a unique opportunity for the study of miscegenation by means of genealogical data. The extent to which the mixture of blood had proceeded during the past four or five generations might be gauged with almost mathematical accuracy, if the genealogical method were applied to the problem. For the present and the last generation or two, other interesting problems might be elucidated by the study of the charts where the mixture of breeds was shown. Thus the effect of miscegenation on virility, constitution, longevity, intellectuality, and morality might be gauged at first hand. Some loose generalisations, as, ior instance, that the half-caste partook of the vices of the two races without the virtues of either, might be checked with the facts. Light might even be cast on aspects of Mendelism. The Scotch-Maori, the Irish-Maori, the English-Maori, -the German-Maori, the Danish-Maori, the Dal- j matian-Maori, the Negro-Maori, the Portugese Maori, and, in the preserit generation, the Hindu-Maori and the ChineseMaori marriages might all be found on record. In the generation following the first crossing of p.ure-bloods (it that term could be used) bewildering inter-mixtures of half-breeds with half-breeds of any ot these stocks, of half-breeds with purebloods on either side, of half with quarter, or other fractional breeds might still be patiently pursued by the research student. Dr. Condliffe had expressed the hope that through the mixture of blood tUe Maoris would -add another element of romance and daring and poetry that would make the people of New Zealand different even from their kindred peoples in other parts of the Empire. If history should come to register such a result it should not miss the opportunity now ottered or tracing the steps towards its attainment.