44 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
eyes—their offspring will almost invariably have duller tints. I find it 
impossible to faithfully paint in words what I consider the distinguishing 
marks of the young New Zealander. They are most marked in the female. 
It is, however, very often quite easy to distinguish the colonial born and bred 
by their looks. 
Encouraged by the ardent sun’s rays, and unchecked by biting cold, 
both English plants and English animals here quickly attain maturity. So, 
too, their offsprings quickly grow, and are early developed. But this early 
forcing is the precursor of early decay. In Australia, under a fierce sun, the 
children grow quickly, but like hot-house flowers they early fade, and their 
mental and physical powers are well nigh exhausted at an age when the 
Englishman is in his prime. They lack stamina. The New Zealand and 
colonial youth and young man is physically and mentally weaker than 
persons of similar age at home. They are less robust; hard work and priva- 
tions soon affect them. The colonial generation, too, is constitutionally 
weak. The individuals are often, as they say, “seedy” ; any attack of 
disease quickly prostrates them, and the recoveries are tardy. The women 
fade, become old and haggard, after rearing a small family. Like the males, 
they early bloom and quickly fade. 
In one of his singularly suggestive and delightful works, Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes startles the reader by remarking that “the finest women 
are raised under glass," and then exclaims :—“ Good, dry, well-ventilated 
houses, well-paved streets, every possible comfort, and an absence of hard- 
ships are as necessary to produce fine women as a green-house and warmth 
to exotic flowers." Probably owing to the absence of these things is due 
some of the defects just mentioned. 
The conclusions I draw are these :—Partly owing to the climate, and 
partly to other changes in the environment, the immigrants’ vital capacities 
diminish, their physical energies deteriorate ; and that these alterations are 
more fully developed in their offspring, and that it is certain that the race 
would alter much and very decidedly deteriorate, were it not for a constant 
stream of immigrants. 
Art. VI.—Polynesia. By J. Apaws, B.A. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, September 13, 1875.] 
About 360 years ago, Magellan, after battling for weeks against contrary 
winds and currents through the 60 miles of straits that bear his name, got 
out at last into the great ocean; and steering a N.W. course, sped along 
with fair winds and favoring currents until he had reached the Ladrone 
