Cheeseman. — On the Food-plants of the Polynesians. 311 



plants are natives of every one of the hundreds of islands 

 on which they are cultivated from Fiji to Hawaii. Such a 

 statement would not be supported by any of the known 

 facts of botanical distribution. Under any tenable theory, 

 there must have been numerous stations where some of them 

 did not exist, and which were stocked by human agency. 



During recent years the traditional history of the various 

 parts of Polynesia has been closely scrutinised and compared. 

 Of course, many points are still doubtful, and many questions 

 of interest may never be solved ; but sufficient has been 

 established to warrant the statement that at one time the 

 Polynesians regularly navigated the Pacific, between the 

 Sandwich Islands in the north and New Zealand in the 

 south. And, so far as the latter country is concerned, there 

 is everv reason for believing that for some centuries there 

 was no infrequent communication between it and the central 

 Pacific. Not only did Polynesians reach New Zealand, but 

 they returned, bringing back with them a knowledge of the 

 country and its productions. From such voyages the Poly- 

 nesians learned the existence of the much-prized greenstone, 

 and of the moa, so easily hunted and yielding such tempting 

 food. And when it was at length resolved to colonise this 

 country there can be no doubt that the " iVrawa," " Tainui," 

 and the other well-known canoes of Maori history which 

 constituted the fleet carrying the immigrants, were steered 

 by people who knew well what direction to take and what 

 the duration of the voyage would probably be. It may be 

 good painters' license to represent the Maoris arriving in New 

 Zealand as a famished crew that had lost their way on the 

 Pacific and were at death's door, as is the case in a well- 

 known painting now exhibited in this city, but it may be 

 doubted whether this was the usual result of these voyages. 



As it can be considered as proved that the Polynesians, in 

 colonising the various islands of the Pacific, stocked them 

 with their special cultivated plants, or, at any rate, with 

 those that were not actually indigenous, so when they came 

 to attempt the greater task of peopling New Zealand there 

 can be little doubt the same practice would be followed. We 

 kuow that they succeeded in establishing the kumara, the 

 taro, the hue, and the aute. Mr. Walsh has shown that in 

 all probability they also brought the Ti pore. We are ac- 

 quainted with their successes ; of their failures we know 

 nothing with certainty. But we can well imagine the 

 attempts that they would make to acclimatise the banana, 

 the bread-fruit, and possibly the cocoanut, and the disap- 

 pointment they would feel in failing to establish the three 

 staple food-plants of the Pacific. 



