MAORI ETHNOLOGY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19010, 5 November 1923, Page 8

MAORI ETHNOLOGY.

PAX-PACIFIC CONGRESS. (From Oob Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, November 5. In a report on the Pan-Pacific Congress, which has been submitted to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr P. 11. Buck (Director of Maori Hygiene), who was one of the New Zealand representatives at the Congress, refers to the great interest that members took in. the past and present of the Maori people. Dr Buck states that Dr A. Lodewigok, Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Melbourne, stressed the importance of obtaining phonographic records of the speech of the native races of the Pacific. He described the latest method carried out in Europe, and the making of permanent records from sslected cylinders. These could be exchanged with other countries. A clockwork arrangement marking fractions of seconds was used with the recording instruments to show the exact time taken. Another instrument is used to obtain a wave--tracing of the voice on a paper record. This yielded valuable information as to the structure of various languages. 'T was able,” said Dr Buck, ‘‘to point out that the taking of phonographic records was an important oart of the work undertaken by the Now Zealand Department of Internal Affairs in its ethnological expeditions. As a result of further discussion with Dr Lodewigck I ascertained that he was of opinion that the taking of wave-tracings would prove of value in recording dialectical differences amongst the Maori tribes which I pointed out wow often due to inflections of the voice. He has promised to contribute a paper on the system to the Polynesian Journal, and will bo pleased to give any further information he can to the Department of Internal Affairs if required to do so.” The Congress was very much interested in Dr Buck’s work in connection with the physical anthropology of the Maori. 'I be doctor was able to show that New Zealand bad not been behindhand in this somewhat technical branch of the service. His own measurements of 4?4 full-blooded Maoris of the New Zealand Maori Battalion, taken in 1919, and published in the Polynesian Journal, form 'so far the largest number of measurements of any native race in the Pacific. Dr Haddon, of Cambridge, was impressed with the Now Zealand slides depicting the technique of the Maori crafts, and is endeavouring to get a set of them for teaching purposes at Cambridge University. _ ■ In concluding bis . report Dr Buck says; “Through the material supplied by the department I was enabled to show the standard of work done in New Zealand. Tt ranks as high as aiiv being done in Hie Pacific. Mr H. D. Skinner and myself are confident that as a result of the interchange of views and the intercourse with authorities from other parts of the world we will receive not onlv a greater stimulus ourselves but hive assisted in imparting it to others. The ultimate result must be for the continuance of the high standard of ethnological work in New Zealand which we owe to the late Mr Percy Smith, Mr Elsdon Best, and other pioneers in this branch of science.”