92 THE PAPUANS: COMPARATIVE NOTES, ETC., 
brown Polynesians, although it would puzzle anyone to tell how 
or when these people came to New Guinea. 
I now come to the observations instituted by the eminent 
ethnologist, Dr. O. Finsch, who made the study of the Poly- 
nesian races a speciality for a period extending over a number 
of years (1879-1882). 
Dr. Finsch not only took measurements of representative 
types wherever he went, but also obtained a large series of 
plaster-casts of living subjects, and numerous photographs of 
both sexes, the whole collection thus brought together contain- 
ing 200 plaster-casts, 300 crania, 200 samples of hair, 300 photo- 
graphs, and many outlines of hands and feet. As a scientific 
contribution to the ethnology of Oceania, this collection is, I 
believe, unsurpassed. 
Itis a pity that our own Governments do not combine to obtain 
equally valuable materials towards the enrichment of our 
national collections before the advent of the white man renders 
the collection of these valuable and interesting curiosities no 
longer possible, by reason of the introduction of iron and steel, 
of beads and calicoes, among the races of the different island 
groups. Even at Sogore, sixty miles from Port Moresby, the 
chief, Bia-Irican, told me that when Mr. Goldie first paid his 
people with hatchets they threw all their stone axes and adzes 
away. I subsequently found some of these in the plantations, 
and beside the paths leading from village to village. It behoves 
us, therefore, to take time by the forelock if we desire to see the 
life-history of this interesting race depicted in our Museum. 
‘Dr. Finsch is of opinion, after studying different tribes in 
New Guinea, from the north-west to East Cape, including 
Salwattee, the Islands of Torres Straits, Saibai, Hlema, near 
Cape Possession; Maiva, in Hall Sound; Port Moresby, the 
Koiara of Astrolabe, the Sugairi or Sogore, of the Upper Laloki, 
1Anthropologische Ergebnisse, O. Finch, Berlin, 1884, p. 38 et seg. 
