MAORI RACE RESEARCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18530, 15 October 1923, Page 9

MAORI RACE RESEARCH.

VALUE OF THE NEW BOARD. FUNDS FOR ;. INVESTIGATION. DR. P. H. BUCK'S VIEWS. The appointment of V board of Maori Ethnological Research, announced from Wellington, can hardly fail to be of outstanding valuo in preserving and making more widely known many interesting phases of Maori life. Dr. P. H. Buck Director of Medical Hygiene, spoke on Saturday in an enthusiastic strain of the good that is to bo anticipated from the operations of the new board. There was undoubtedly a considerable valume of data in regard to Maori life which now was preserved in manuscript, said Dr. Buck. but. not having been published, was not at the disposal of the interested public. The fund which would bo made available by the board should .be of material valuo for publishing some of this collected data. . In this connection Dr. Buck directed attention to the long labours of Mr. Elsdon Best, of the Dominion Museum, who has made, this subject his life study. At present there aro four works by Mr. Best "awaiting publication. ' These are The Pa Maorit an account of fortified villages by the Maoris in the pre-Europcan days and in modern times; The Maori Canoe, which describes the various types of canoe, with notes on Polynesian vessels; Games, Exercises and Pastimes of the Maori Folk; and Maori System of Agriculture. A fifth treatise by Mr. Best, entitled Maori Mythology and Religion, is now in preparation. r If funds were available, said Dr. Buck, the publication of works such as these would be facilitated, and thus a vast amount of useful knowledge would be at the service of the general public of New /,ea and, and of students in other parts of.the world, who are waiting for such ethnological information. Dr. Buck further alluded to the manuscript of Te Matorohanga who was a graduate in one of the last Maori schools in ' New Zealand. A considerable, quantity of Te Matorohanga's work, which was unique, was reported by a gathering of Maoris, and was written down in full. That work was written in good Maori, and if given to the world in the original Maori, with a translation for the general reader, it would, said Dr. Buck, provide a useful help in the study of the Maori language. Particularly would it prove of utility to etymologists studying the Maori lanpage; further, it would go toward satislying an insistent want among the Maoris themselves— Maori literature and history. Work of Polynesian Society. Referring to the efforts of the Polynesian Society, Dr. Buck paid a tribute to this organisation, which has been in existence for 32 years, and has its headquarters at New Plymouth. An immense amount of material had, he remarked, been collected, published, and put on record by the society in connection with the Maori race. The ■ quarterly, publication of the Polynesian Society would. Dr. Buck pointed out, probably be assisted by the board's funds. By a little financial* support that journal could be enlarged and more illustrations given, and thus its general status would be improved, so that any ethnologist interested in the races of the Pacific would come to deem the publication a necessity. Indeed, he said, if it were so improved, it would become even more of a- necessity than ever. Interest at Honolulu. ' Another phase of the ethnological research in connection with the Pacific, to which Dr. Buck referred, was the work carried on by the Bishop Museum of '• Honolulu. _ The people connected with : that organisation "had, he said,- shown ■> great liberality in connection with research work, and in- their desire to further the publishing of , collected data. They deemed such expenditure as a sound proposition, from their own point of "view, for if here in the Dominion there existed unpublished material, America might 'be ; covering similar ground of research to that dealt with in that unprinted information. That meant over-lapping, and waste of time and money in prosecuting research that had already been made. They were desirous of helping in the publication of New Zealand material,- but at the same time would rather see New Zealand carry oat the work herself so that the Bishop Museum funds could be utilised for other ethnological purposes.,, v Dr. Buck emphasised,the fact that many in the Dominion held the view that as they were dealing with New Zealand data it-was incumbent upon the Dominion to do its own publishing.- That, he said, would be materially assisted by the funds of the new board. '