1840.] PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 299 



tance, are enacted. The annual expense of administering 

 the government exceeds fifty thousand pounds sterling. 



(6.) Ethnologically considered, the native New Zealanders 

 may be classed as belonging to the Malay family, and they 

 are undeniably the best specimens of the race. The men are 

 tall, well-formed and athletic ; many of the chiefs are up- 

 wards of six feet high ; and all possess great strength and 

 activity. The women are likewise well shaped, but they 

 lack the fulness of muscle, and the soft rounded contour, wit- 

 nessed among other Polynesians. Their color varies in indi- 

 viduals, from a dark chestnut to a light copper or brunette, 

 and resembles very nearly that of the European gypsy, or 

 the Eurasian in India. They have round faces, high fore- 

 heads sloping backwards, aquiline noses full at the point, 

 large lips, and fine white teeth. Their eyes are black, strong, 

 and piercing. Their hair is black and commonly straight, 

 but sometimes thick, bushy, and curly ; that of the women is 

 frequently fine, soft, and silky. Some crop their hair, leav- 

 ing only a small bunch on the top of the head, and others 

 suffer it to grow long. Whiskers and beards are not con- 

 sidered at all in good taste among the New Zealand ex- 

 quisites. Tattooing is practiced, by all who can afford the 

 expense, and often gives a dark expression to the counte- 

 nance, where it does not really exist. The men ornament 

 their faces and arms, and their whole bodies and limbs, from 

 the navel downwards ; but the women rarely tattoo an}' other 

 parts of their persons except the mouth and the pubes — the 

 latter taking place on their arrival at the age of puberty — 

 though a few ornamental devices about the wrists and ankles 

 are occasionally seen. They pay little regard to personal 

 cleanliness, rarely ever bathe, besmear themselves with grease 

 and dirt, and seem to delight in being filthy. 



Portions of the middle island, or New Munster, are said to 

 be inhabited by individuals evidently of the Papuan race, 

 who differ widely from the true New Zealanders, and bear a 

 strong resemblance to the natives of Australia, and the 

 islands of the Eastern Archipelago. 



