Harrison. — Coal{?) frovi Boby's Creek, Waipara. 475 



that these languages, in Melanesia especially, are those of peoples 

 long settled. That there are foreign elements to be taken into 

 consideration is certain. The Malays have borrowed from Asia, 

 especially India. The Polynesians may also have borrowed 

 words either before their migration or to some extent from the 

 people they dispossessed. In Santa Cruz, Savo, Vella Lavella, 

 and some bush dialects, Mr. Ray (and modern German philo- 

 logists) believe there are traces oi a pre-Melanesian tongue. 

 In New Guinea, Papuan words have been borrowed, in some 

 cases plentifully. This borrowing from foreign sources is a very 

 different thing from an Oceanic language, such as Fijian, borrow- 

 ing from another Oceanic language, such as Tongan. 



Where the diversity of vocabulary arises from mere borrow- 

 ing from a kindred tongue, from certain words becoming tapu 

 and dying out while other (less common) forms are substituted, 

 from merely local use or local metaphor, from the appearance 

 of words at different levels of language, or from phonetic change,, 

 a fuller and wider knowledge will show it to be more apparent 

 than real. 



The most interesting field for the student of Oceanic lan- 

 guages lies at present in New Guinea and Melanesia, both be- 

 cause these languages are in an earlier and more primitive stage 

 of growth, and because, with some few exceptions, they are 

 very little known. The derivation of words must at present 

 be very uncertain. 



This paper will have done its work if it helps to point out to 

 New Zealand students of language the wide and interesting 

 field which lies close to them, at present but little explored. 



Art. XLII. — Notes on a Coal{1) from Bobifs Creek, Waipara. 



By L. H. Harrison, B.A. 



Communicated by Professor Evans. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd October, 1P06.] 



The coal or shale herein described is of especial interest inasmuch 

 as it carried on its surface both free sulphur and calcium- sulphate, 

 and so appeared to illustrate a definite stage in the development 

 of such shales. The calcium-sulphate crystals appeared in the 

 form of large and well-developed rosettes, while the sulphur was 

 scattered in small particles throughout the fissures in the coal, 

 but only in small quantity. 



