478 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



one hundred years, among the natives on the same part of the 

 East Coast. Thus it may be that this people, conservative by 

 predilection, are conservative also by force of a religious or super- 

 stitious code of moral ethics, scarcely inferior in strictness and 

 minutenees to Aryan caste. It is almost certain that every part 

 of the design had a definite and constant meaning, and that some 

 parts, notably those near the ear, had all the properties of a personal 

 totem. Among the Rangatira class there was a general consensus 

 of idea as to the necessity of a highly complicated face pattern ; 

 hence the amount of work lavished on the face. Among the 

 Samoan the whole figure receives equal attention, but none of their 

 patterns can be classed with any Maori pattern. In addition to 

 the " Moko," the Maori chief's craving for ornament showed itself 

 in the bright colours of the feathers which he used as a head-dress on 

 gala occasions, and in the elaborate and gay patterns worked into 

 his mat or cloak. In Maori pictorial weaving, instead of any 

 serious attempt at accurate proportion, the general idea of 

 repi'esenting an ancestor was somewhat after the style of a court 

 card essentially decorative ; when the subject was mythical the 

 treatment was decorative and artistic ; when derisive or defiant, 

 the protruded tongue appeared. This protruded tongue also forms 

 the " spear-head" (so called) on the end of the taialias or staves 

 always carried of old by Maori orators. Another very persistent 

 and typical form of ornament was the figure-head of a first-class 

 war canoe. The only approach to the form of these canoe carvings 

 was to be found at Woodlark Island, near New Guinea. 



jNIr. Hamilton concluded by saying — " All the points I have 

 mentioned will, I feel sure, when properly investigated, place 

 Maori art, in a truly decorative sense, at the head of the Art of 

 the South Pacific." 



2.— THE LAST OF THE TASMANIANS. 



By the Hon. J. W. Agnew, M.D., M.L.C., Hobart. 



To readers of the earlier history of Tasmania it is well-known 

 that after disturbed relations, attended with much bloodshed on 

 both sides, had existed for sometime between the natives and the 

 Avhite settlers, all that remained of the former were induced to 

 submit themselves to Government. Tliey were afterwards removed 

 to Flinder's Island, a dependency of Tasmania in Bass Strait, 

 where, although kindly treated, death became so rife, that in the 

 course of about ten years they were reduced to one third of their 

 original number. The new mode of life in fact was unsuited to 

 their habits, nostalgia even came to be a factor in the mortality 

 and children ceased to be born. The survivors, forty-five in 



