PAN-PACIFIC CONGRESS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 December 1926, Page 7

PAN-PACIFIC CONGRESS

GATHERING IN*JAPAN PROFESSOR BROWN RETURNS IMPRESSIONS OF MEETING By Tclegtavh —Press Assn.—CopyrightSydney, Dee. 14. Professor MacMillan Brown has arrived in Sydney from Japan, where he attended the Part-Pacific Congress. Ho paid a warm tribute to the hospitality of the Japanese and said he had never seen a congress so well organised. Many interesting entertainments and excursions had been arranged. He considered the congress extremely successful, though it had the disadvantage of being arranged in sections, so that everyone had to choose only the section in which lie vvas interested. Professor Brown read a paper on the relationship of the Polynesians and their language to the Ainus, the primitive inhabitants of Japan, in their language and to the Indo-European language. He showed that the first three numerals of the Polynesian and Ainu languages were the same as the fKst three numerals of the Indo-European language. Hie ■ision was that the Polynesian was the most primeval form of the IndoEuropean language. This etriking hypothesis greatly interested the delegates to the congress. Professor Brown added that the Japanese Government was a remarkable example of socialism, for it managed everything. All the foreign scientists at the congress were struck by the extraordinary enthusiasm in Japan for research, which was eagerly taken up by young men.