Maoris and other peoples, as inferred by European Scholars, on Ethnological principles or from peculiar existing customs: in other words, I propose to examine the questions “Are there any populations in the Pacific Islands with whom there is reason to suppose that the Maoris have blood relations, either by parallel descent from a common ancestor or by a more immediate and traceable pedigree, or do they stand alone and with no apparent affinities with any one else? As my object is, chiefly to place before those, who may look into the Transactions of the N. Z. Institute, the evidence about the Maoris which seems to me reliable, I have not thought it necessary to quote at length the various views that have been held on this subject by scholars in Europe, such for instance, as W. von Humboldt, Crawfurd and others. I have thought that it would be more useful to consider, chiefly, the theories of those writers who, like Mr. Thompson, have placed their opinions on record in the pages of this work.* I have made one exception in the case of Baschmann, “Iles Marquises,” Berl., S. 1843, to whom I have referred constantly in the latter portion of this paper for views of the Analogies between the Talitian and Hawaian dialects. Now before I proceed to make such observations as seem necessary on this part of my general subject, it is necessary that I should state that ethnologists are, generally, agreed in dividing the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands (meaning by this term those portions of land which lie between the two great continents of Asia and America), into certain leading groups; though I must add, in my judgment, not unfrequently, with very inadequate designations. On the whole, I think the division into five such groups, now usually accepted on the continent of Europe, is the clearest and best, though not wholly free from objections: I shall, therefore, adopt this here; though it is not an exhaustive division and many instances occur, as might naturally be expected, of the overlapping of the lines of partition, and of the intermingling of distinct but adjoining populations. The names of these divisions are: I. Malaisia. Comprehending Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Moluccas, Sooloo, Philippine Islands, and a considerable part of Malacca and Formosa. The characteristic of this people is that they have brownish-yellow skins and lank black hair. II. Melanesia. Comprising New Guinea, Arra, Mysol, Waygeon, New Britain, New Ireland, New Caledonia, New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands. These people are dark (nearly black) as regards their skins, with woolly and frizzly hair. The western