THE PACIFIC RACES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 17, 17 May 1912, Page 4

THE PACIFIC RACES.

Professor M'Millan-Brown, of Christchurch, reached Sydney a few days ago on Ids way to the Malay Archipelago, where he is going to see whether there

is more Polynesianism on the eastern end than the western side of the inlands. Discussing the purpose of his trip, the professor told an interviewer that he had always been bewildered by the universal belief that the Malay language and people had gone east into Polynesia. There were hundreds of Malay words that had their derivation in Polynesian, and how did the language go west unless the people went there also? Then, too, the prevailing trade wind for nine months of the year was from Polynesia to the Malay Archipelago, and during the other thrje months'the wind blew fitf.dly, with calms and cyclonic hursts—a condition altogether against immigration. When the customs of the Polynesian, Melanesian. and Mala."/ were analysed, it was found that the affinity was stronger between Polynesia and' Fiji .than:between Polynesia arid Soloma'ri Islands, and again it wasstronger between Polynesia and Solomon Islands than between Polynesia and Malay Archipelago. And in the languages the same affinity was seen. These facts, the professor added, were quite opposed to the book of genesis of Polynesia, but they had to be answered. He was going to: the, Malay Archipelago to see ' the 1 people—to study their heads, features, and stature ; and to see whether the Polynesian died off as he went westward. He would also study their beliefs and superstitions, and watch their manners of life. There were facts about these peoples that could not be explained unless the march was from east to west. ,