10 NATIVES OF [PART i. 



gin. This is proved by their less regularly shaped 

 cranium, which is rather more compressed from the 

 sides, by their full and large features, prominent 

 cheek-bones, full lips, small ears, curly and coarse, 

 although not woolly, hair, a much deeper colour of 

 the skin, and a short and rather ill-proportioned 

 rigure. This race, which is mixed in insensible 

 gradations with the former, is far less numerous; 

 it does not predominate in any one part of the island, 

 nor does it occupy any particular station in a tribe, 

 and there is no difference made between the two 

 races amongst themselves ; but I must observe that 

 I never met any man of consequence belonging to 

 this race, and that, although free men, they occu- 

 pied the lower grades ; from this we may perhaps 

 infer the relation in which they stood to the earliest 

 native immigrants into the country, although their 

 traditions and legends are silent on the subject. 



From the existence of two races in New Zealand 

 the conclusion might be drawn that the darker were 

 the original proprietors of the soil, anterior to the 

 arrival of a stock of true Polynesian origin, that 

 they were conquered by the latter, and nearly ex- 

 terminated. This opinion has been entertained re- 

 garding all Polynesian islands, but I must observe 

 that it is very doubtful whether those differences 

 which we observe amongst the natives of New Zea- 

 land are really due to such a source. We find simi- 

 lar varieties in all Polynesian islands, and it is 

 probable that they are a consequence of the differ- 



