422 Transactions. 



to say whether this use of the personal ])ronoun in place of the pronominal 

 suffix had a wider currency. Another anomalous use occurs in the phrase 

 " ta imi na ratou e kai,"' the people who ate him (132). The Maori idiom 

 would be " nana i kai." 



A curious inverted construction is found occasionally in which the direct 

 object of the sentence is treated as if it were the indirect object : Ko ta 

 imi t'iei haramai i tangat, ka pang etu ki ri ngakau, As for the tribes from 

 ivhich no men went with him, he threw them the entrails (SO) ; Ri oro mai au 

 nei ki t' opeope, He threw me a scrap. 



The phrase " no ro me," because (Maori, " no te mea ""). takes also the 

 peculiar form-s " ka ro a me " and '' ka ra wa me," which it is difficult 

 to explain grammatically. A similar difficulty is raised by the sentence 

 " E me wa me meheki naku " (132). Bhand's translation, They are things 

 belonging to me, no doubt gives the sense, but fails to explain the syntax. 



The points reviewed in this paper do not, in the opinion of the writer, 

 make for any s])ecial theory as to the identity or origin of the Moriori race. 

 In fact, it is well that we were pledged to no theory, for it seems that the 

 only conclusion we have succeeded in establishing is the entirely negative 

 one that the Moriori tongue is not correctly described as "a subdialect 

 of New Zealand Maori." So far from that being the case, it has as nuich 

 right to be considered indejjendent as any of the known dialects of the 

 Polynesian language. 



Art. XXX VII. ^ — Report on the Natural Features of the Arthur's Pass 



Tunnel. 



By a Committee of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury : C. C. Farr, 

 E. G. Hogg, S. Page, L. J. Wild, and F. W. Hilgexdorf (Convener). 



[Read before the N etc Zealand Institute, at Christckurch, 4th-<Sth Februanj, 1919; received 

 by Editor, 21st May, 1919 : issued separately, 19th Auyust, 1919.] 



In 1907, when the railway-tunnel from Otira to Arthur's Pass was about 

 to be commenced, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury arranged to 

 make a series of records of the phenomena of natural and physical science 

 that were revealed by the piercing of the tunnel. 



It was designed to pay special attention to (1) the rock-formation 

 exposed by the section ; (2) the temperature of the rock in the bore as 

 compared with that of the rock on the surface ; and (3) the radio-activity 

 of the rock in the tunnel (to determine whether the temperature gradient 

 in the earth's crust and the radio-activity of the rocks were related in any 

 measureable degree). 



The tunnel was to be about 5 miles 25 chains in length ; to penetrate 

 the main chain of the Southern Alps from near the headwaters of the 

 Otira, which flows into the Taramakau, to near those of the Bealey, which 

 flows into the Waimakariri ; to be in a straight line from portal to portal ; 

 and to rise with an even gradient of 1 in 33 from the Otira end. 



A Tunnel Committee was appointed by the Council of the Institute, 

 a series of suitable slow-acting thermometers and other apparatus were 

 obtained, and satisfactory arrangements were niade with the contractors 



