THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1037, 15 January 1892, Page 38

THE POLYNESIAN SOCIETY.

13V • Those who are interested in the Maori people, or in their brethren of the Pacific Islands, have long lamented.that there were few moans of communication between Polynesian scholars living in different localities as to their common subject of interest. The material objects,each as weapons, buildings, vessels, &c., may be preserved for the study of our children, but the opportunity of gaining knowledge concerning them is fast passing away with the lives of the older Natives. Desiring to rescue as much as possible of this knowledge from oblivion, some of those interested in the subject accepted the invitation conveyed in a circular issued by Mr 8. Percy Smith, SurveyorGeneral, and met together at the Museum on Friday, the Sth inst., to consider the formation of a society. Major Gudgeon, Judge of the Native Land Court, was voted to the chair, and called on Mr Smith to propose a resolution forming the Polynesian Society. Mr Smith explained the objects and motives of the promoters—viz., to endeavour to preserve by publication any fragments of history, poetry or legend which could be collected ; to print vocabularies, &0., for the benefit of students of language ; to edit essays, with engravings, on the customs, attributes, statistics, &c., of the native races, nob only of New Zealand and Polynesia proper, but of Melanesia, Micronesia, and of all people dwelling in the Pacific. It was hoped that by scholars in different island groups interchanging their ideas and giving results of investigations that much useful work might be done, and original information disseminated. The results obtained by the Royal Asiatic Society ,Jthe Anthropological Society, and others had been so useful and interesting that it was to be hoped that Polynesia might, by the labour of its specialists, be studied and understood in a more systematic manner than has been done hitherto. The list of members had already reached the number of 112, manv of them being distinguished scholars, and there was no doubt that, on the Society becoming more widely known through the medium of their Transactions, a very large muster-roll would be announced at soma meeting in the near future. The resolution forming/ the Society being then carried unanimously, the rules were passed, and officers for the ensuing year appointed as follows : —Patron, Her Majesty tbs Queen of Hawaii (Honolulu) ; President, Mr Seth Smith, Chief- Judge Native Land Court ; Council Rev. Mr Habeas, Dr Carroll (Sydney), Messrs Flsdon Best, J. R. Blair, E. Tregear, and S. Percy Smith ; Secretaries—S. P. Smith and E. Tregear. Sir George Grey and Mi ! Fenton (late Chief Judge Native Land Court) were elected honorary members, and Mr Otis Masou, of the National Museum. Washington, United Sthtes, was elected a corresponding member at the suggestion of the Smithsonian Institute of America. The Rev Mr Hammond was also elected a corresponding member. It is intended to hold the annual meetings in Wellington during the next two years, and after that time to allow the question of headquarters to be voted for at the annual meeting. The secretaries, Mr Percy Smith and Mr E. Tregear, will act as editors of the journal, which it is intended to issue quarterly, and as the members of the Society are scattered in Tonga, Hawaii, Rarotonga, Samoa, Tahiti, New Guinea, New Hebrides, Australia, &0., it iB almost a certainty that the papers will form a fund of interesting and valuable reading.