114 RECORDS OF THK AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



cIukIs have been described by Tuiner from Llie soutli and east of 

 New Guinea, by the same wiiter from tlie Admiralty Islands, 

 from the interior of Fiji by Turner and by Flower, and from New 

 Caledonia 1)}' Turner and by Watersion. They have also been 

 recorded from the Loyalty Islands. Recently by the courtesy 

 of the Trustees of the Australian Museum in Sydney, I had 

 the privilege of examining a collection of skulls from various 

 parts of the South Seas, and in it I found a skull from Epi in the 

 New Hebrides corresponding closely to this type (PI. xxxiii.). Its 

 measurements are given in the tables. 



It has to be remembered that among the Sandwich Islanders, 

 a distinctly Polynesian race, there is a dolichocephalic type as 

 well as a brachycephalic type ; but among the dolichocephalic 

 specimens recorded by Turner the lowest cephalic index is 71 — 

 in fact the index is strangely constant, since in fifteen skulls it 

 ranges from 71 to 74. This bears out the statement which is 

 being found true in so many instances that in every primitive 

 race one finds a dolichocephalic and a brachycephalic element co- 

 existing. It will be apparent that there is little resemblance 

 between the Whangarei skull and these Hawaiian specimens. 



The Whangarei skull, in its resemblance to specimens from 

 parts of New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, the interior of Fiji, 

 New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands and tlie New Hebrides, is 

 distinctly Melanesian, differing in this respect from the Polynesian 

 type of Maoris and Morioris even when the mixed characters of 

 these tvvo races is taken into account. 



Some reference is required to the relative length of the frontal 

 and parietal arcs. So far as I can find, in the vast majority of 

 skulls of Melanesians of pure race the parietal arc is longer than 

 the frontal ; but it sometitnes occurs that the frontal is the 

 longer, as is the case in the Whangarei skull. 



One must admit the possibility of a " freak specimen " in any 

 race ; but if one were asked to classify the Whangarei skull from 

 a consideration of its most obvious characters and without the 

 knowledge that it was found in New Zealand one would almost 

 certainly class it as the skull of a Melanesian, and would ilescribe 

 it as possessing certain well-marked primitive racial characters. 



There is some evidence in support of the theory that the 

 Melanesian or Negrito element, at a time prior to the Polynesian 

 (Indonesian or Caucasian) emigration, spread over the whole of 

 the South Seas. It any further lemains res«!mbling the Whang- 

 arei skull were found in New Zealand there would lie fairly 

 strong evidence that the tnembers of liie Melanesian race liad 

 reached that land if they had not a<."tually peopled it. 



