346 AUSTRALASIA. 



Every village possesses a supreme tabu, a sacred image carved in hard wood, 

 embellished with bat skins and set up on a long pole with its face turned towards 

 the east. According to some authorities the chiefs and nobles are, lor the most 

 part, of Polynesian origin, and are distinguished by their physical appearance from 

 their Melanesian subjects. Not only is the complexion said to be lighter, but the 

 forehead would appear to be higher and broader, the nose straighter, the lijDS 

 thinner, the figure taller, the carriage more haughty. This Polynesian element 

 is naturally most widely represented on the east side facing the oceanic homes of 

 this race. 



Like so many other insular populations, the New Caledonian kanakas appear to 

 be dying out. " We are not like our forefathers," said a chief to Brenchley, 

 " they were numerous and wise ; we are neither." Travellers estimated at about 

 sixty thousand the population towards the middle of the present century, and in 

 1886 they had already been reduced to twenty-three thousand. At the same time 

 this diminution must be partly attributed to the constant massacres followed by 

 cannibal feasts, for the enemy slain in battle were always devoured. The bodies 

 were fairly divided amongst the warriors, who in their turn distributed the 

 "joints " in equal portions amongst their families, When the European mariners 

 first made their appearance the natives had never seen any other meat except that 

 of their fellow-creatures, and fancied that the beef distributed to the crews was the 

 flesh of gigantic human beings. 



The insurrection of 1878 cost the lives of a thousand natives, besides one thou- 

 sand two hundred transported to the Island of Pines and other places. Never- 

 theless the losses caused by wars and revolts are trifling compared to the numbers 

 who perish by ailments, such as consumption, introduced by the Europeans. 

 Drink also claims many victims, since the invasion of the dealers in " tafia." 

 Alliances between the white convicts, soldiers or settlers, and the native women 

 are rare, because the kanakas hold in great contempt the fai/o carahous, or " people 

 of the prison." Hence there is no hope of a half-caste race gradually absorbing 

 the whole native element by fresh unions. 



Little success has attended the attempts of the landowners to employ native 

 labour on their plantations. The tribal groups themselves possess reserves, the 

 collective enjoyment of which is guaranteed to them by the state. Hence they 

 naturally prefer to cultivate maize, manioc or taro on their own account, than to 

 toil on the tobacco, sugar, or coffee plantations of the whites. Hence, also, the 

 accusations of the inveterate indolence brought against them, and the efforts to 

 replace them by hands " engaged " in other islands, and held in a sort of slavery 

 by advances difficult to refund under several years of hard work. Over two 

 thousand labourers have thus been introduced, chiefly from the Loyalty and New 

 Hebrides groups. 



The political convicts transported in 1872, to the number of about four thousand 

 five hundred, have nearly all left the colony. Some few, who had developed 

 profitable industries in Noumea, have alone declined to take advantage of the free 

 pardon granted to all in 1880. Ordinary convicts number at present about twelve 



