CorENso.—On the Maori Races of ‘New Zealand. 407 
(20.) That it is a highly interesting fact, and one that is increasing in 
importance every day, that the large majority of animals and plants of the 
whole island region inhabited by this great race, while more or less allied in 
` themselves, are peculiar to this region. 
(21.) That in New Zealand, and in several other islands of the Pacifie, 
there are species of European, African, and American plants identical with 
the plants of those countries, but which have not been taken to the Pacific 
islands by the agency of man. 
(22.) That there are living remnants of an apparently earlier creation, 
both animal and vegetable, in the Pacific isles and seas. 
(23.) That the Polynesian race of man may be a fixed variety of the 
genus homo. 
(24.) That there seems to be just the same kind of difficulty attending 
this question as attends that of the geographical distribution of animals and 
plants among the Polynesian islands. 
(25.) That the Polynesian variety (stirps) of the genus homo may be an 
earlier one than the Caucasian or European ; and from its creation peculiar 
to its own (now) insular region. 
(26.) That it is believed, that while the fair Polynesian race everywhere 
exhibits signs of great antiquity, it also bears unequivocal symptoms of great 
and rapid decadence, or universal deterioration and decline. 
(27.) That the origin of the Polynesian race is a problem that has yet to 
be solved ; and it is believed (having firm faith in the vocation of man, and 
his power to fulfil it) that rr WILL BE SOLVED. 
V.—Mopznx. 
54. This period, comprising nearly a century, from the discovery of New 
Zealand by Cook to the present, is a most eventful one in the history of 
the New Zealanders. A large and instructive volume might be written of 
the principal acts and actors, men and things, of this period. Time, how- 
ever, will only allow of a very brief mention in this essay of the most promi- 
nent of them. It was during this century that four European quadrupeds 
were introduced into New Zealand—the pig, the dog, the cat, and the rat. 
These have each done its share in the work of effecting a great change in the 
country. Had foreigners ceased to visit New Zealand after the introduc- 
tion of those animals, the country would no longer have been the same it ' 
once was to its Maori inhabitants. And it is a question difficult to answer, 
whether their introduction alone, followed by such a circumstance, would 
have been a benefit or an injury. These four animals, especially the two 
smaller ones, destroyed the choice and numerous ones of the Maori—the 
edible rat, the kiwi, the quail, and the ground parrot, and the birds gene- 
