GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE POLYNESIANS. 801 
No. 14.—NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL KNOW- 
LEDGE OF THE POLYNESIANS. 
By S. Percy Smiru, F.R.G.S., Surveyor-General, Welli i 
New Zealand. der Ye 
(Read Monday, January 10, 1898.) Liepery 
Parr II. 
In a paper read before Section E of this Association in 18 
endeavoured to show that before the advent of white men into~ 
‘the Pacific, the Polynesians were well acquainted with the 
geography of the Southern Ocean. In support of this I quoted 
some forty names known to the Maoris of New Zealand and 
retained in their traditions and chants, most of which can be 
identified with islands of Central Polynesia. 
A good deal of light has been shed on this subject since the 
publication of that paper, principally through contributions to 
the “ Journal of the Polynesian Society,” all of which go to prove 
the general accuracy of the identifications given in the paper 
quoted, whilst at the same time this later information adds many 
names of lands known to the inhabitants of other islands outside 
New Zealand. 
There is very little in the paper quoted above that required 
alteration, due to the acquisition of this later knowledge ; but 
one statement therein should be amended. In deducing the few 
dates given in that paper, only twenty years was allowed as the 
length of a generation. The consensus of opinion of several 
Polynesian scholars, shows that twenty-five years is more probably 
nearer the truth, and this number will be used in this paper 
wherever it is necessary to compute dates. 
The following notes, whilst dealing with the general geo- 
graphical knowledge of the Polynesian, will take Tahiti as a 
standpoint, and from the information gathered there, it will be 
shown how their traditions confirm those of New Zealand, and 
at the same time prove the extent of the great ocean known to 
them. 
It is probable that the last communication the Maoris had with 
Tahiti and the Central Pacific took place at the time of the great 
heke or migration to New Zealand—which we may fix, from the 
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