144 REPORT— 1875. 



such favourable opportunities for forming opinions on matters which touch at once 

 our national and our scientific responsibilities. 



What question can be of closer concernment than that of the possibility of rescu- 

 ing the inhabitants of Polynesia from that gi-adual sliding into extinction -which 

 some writers appear to acqiuesce in as the natural fate of such races. As a text for 

 our discussions upon tliis subject, I will here quote to the Department a passage 

 from the continuation of Waltz's 'Anthropologic' by Dr. Gerland — the author, 

 be it remembered, of a special Monograph upon the Causes of the Decrease and 

 D^dng-out of Native Eaces, which appeared in 18G8 ('Ueber das Aussterben der 

 Naturvolker,' Leipzig), and has been often referred to by writers on anthropology 

 since that year, and is referred to by himself in the passage I now lay before you. 

 It runs thus (' Anihropologie der Natm-volker,' von Dr. Theodor Waitz, fortgesetzt 

 von Dr. Georg Gerland, 1872, vol. ii. pp. 512, 513) : — 



" The decrease of the Polynesian populations is not now going on as fast as it was 

 in the first half of the century ; it has in some localities entirely ceased, whilst in 

 others the indigenous population is actually on the increase*. From this it is clear 

 that the causes for that disappearance of the native races which we discussed at 

 length in the little book above referred to, are now less or no longer operative. 

 For, on the one hand, the natives have adapted themselves more to the influences 

 of civilization ; they are not so amenable as they were at first to the action of 

 diseases, although we still from time to time have instances to the contrary' at the 

 present moment (see, for example, Ev. Miss. Mag. 1867, p. 300, Cheever, 295) [or, 

 -f iiiay add, our own recent information as to the destructive outbreak of measles in 

 Fiji] ; they have become more able to respond to the efforts to raise their mental 

 and moral status than they were; and, with the advance of civilization, they have 

 begun to avail themselves more of the remedial agencies which it brings with it. 

 On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that the Europeans themselves, in 

 spite of many important exceptions, have iievertheless done a very gi'eat deal for the 

 natives, and are always doing more and more for them. Whilst" in this matter the 

 English Government deserves great praise, and whilst Sir George Grey has done 

 more for the Polynesians than almost any other man, the missionaries nevertheless 

 stand in the very first rank amongst the" benefactors of these races, with their un- 

 wearied selfp«acrificing activity ; and Eussel (' Polynesia,' Edinb., 1840) is entirely 

 right in saying that all the progress which the Polynesians have made was really 

 set on foot bv;^ the missionaries. They have had the gi-eatest influence upon the 

 civilization of the natives ; they have taken their part and protected them when 

 they could ; they have further given them the fast foothold, the new fresh object, 

 motive, and meaning for their whole existence, of which they stood so muclu in 

 need. The Polynesians have often declared to the missionaries, ' If you had not 

 come, we should have perished ;' and they would have perished if their country had 

 not been so discovered. The resources of their physical life were exhausted ; and 

 they had none of the moral nor ideal support for the needs of their spiritual nature 

 which they stood so urgently in need of, as they had already attained a grade of 

 culture too high to allow of their living without some support of that kind. It is 

 true that extraneous circumsiances have often, especially in the outset, brought 

 about their conversion— as, for example, the authority of their chiefs, the force of 

 example, as also, on the other hand, the occurrence of misfortune, great mortality, 

 the loss of a battle, after which they wished to make the experiment of worshipping 

 a new god (Russel, pp. 386, 390). And it is also true that the missionaries have in- 

 tioduced them to an exceedingly bigotled and often little-elevated form of Christi- 

 anity j but even this has been a fortunate circumstance; for just the comprehensi- 



* See 'Times' of last Saturday, August 21, 1875, p. 6, where the Natal correspoudent, 

 wntmg of the Caffres, tells us, " we shall Lave to begin civilizing the natives some d;iy. 

 We had better have begun with them teu years ago at 200,000 strong, than now at 

 350,000 ; but we had better begin with them now at 350,000 than ten years hence when 

 they may number half-a-niilliou." Since writing as above I have received through my 

 friend the Rev. W. M yatt Gill a long extract from a paper written in 1861, by the Rev. 

 A. ^\ .Murray. This paper fully confirms Gerland's more recent views as to the prospects 

 of the native races. Mr. Murray, having spent forty years in Polynesia, has the best possible 

 right to be heard upon it. 



