394 Essays. 
Austral, and Tahitian, while it is used by the Marquesan and Hervey 
Islanders, and serves for ¢ in the Sandwich group. There can, however, be 
but little doubt, that had those dialects been reduced to writing by one man, 
or one party of men, the few differences which appear would be even less 
than they now are. At present it is almost difficult to say which of those 
eight should be considered as the standard or leading dialect; but while the 
“writer has always inclined to the New Zealand, partly from internal philo- 
logical considerations observed in comparing it with the cognate dialects, 
and partly from the fact of its having, as already stated, remarkable affinity 
with those the more distant, e.g. Sandwich group and Easter Island, he is 
now strengthened in his opinion, in finding that Mr. Williams (r.w.) was 
also nearly of the same opinion, although he knew very little indeed of that 
of New Zealand. He says, “I shall.select the Tahitian as the standard, 
and compare the others with it. I do this, however, not because I think it 
the original, for the Hervey Islands dialect appears to possess superior claims 
to that title, as it is so much more extensively spoken, and bears a closer affinity 
to the other dialects than the Tahitian, but because the latter was first reduced 
to system.” Now, as the Hervey Islands (Rarotonga) and the New Zea- 
land dialects are very near each other, it will not perhaps be too much 
to assume that the New Zealand dialect, spoken as it is by the largest 
number of natives, and over the greatest area, is the standard or leading 
dialect ; but this will be still more clear when its philological claims come to 
be considered. 
IV.—PALEZONTOLOGICAL. 
90. The question has very often been asked, Whence came the people 
who were found inhabiting the islands of New Zealand? and this question has 
not yet been satisfactorily answered. It is therefore purposed to take up 
the consideration of this subject, and possibly to place some matters con- 
nected with it in a new or clearer light. 
(L) Are the present New Zealanders autochthones? The commonly 
received statement that the whole globe was peopled from one pair, which 
pair primarily resided in Western Asia; the traditions of the people them- 
selves; and (chiefly) their cultivated plants being exotics, and their only 
domestic animal not indigenous ? and their language radically agreeing with 
that of other island groups,—are the present reasons for disallowing this. ` 
(2.) Were there autochthones ? Possibly, or rather very likely. (a.) From 
the fact that no large island like New Zealand, however distant from the 
nearest land, is uninhabited. (6.) From the fact that nearly all the numerous 
i : i e Pacific, though vastly smaller in size, teem with population. 
(e) From the fact of a remnant, at present existing in the Chatham Islands 
