Pairzips.— Civilization of the Pacific. 88 
Sir Hercules Robinson might not have fully considered this dine when 
he proposed that tribal lands should vest in the chiefs. 
An unavoidable mistake has been made in the West Indies, which should, 
if possible, be avoided in Polynesia. The supply of female coolies, in any- 
thing like proportionate numbers, has been much too small, and the result 
has been found to be thoroughly demoralizing; marriage laws have been 
completely thrown aside. Too many male labourers ought not to be intro- 
duced without a proportionate number of females. 
| Health of the Islanders. 
As yet the natives have not considered any sanitary regulations—their 
houses, although comfortable and suited to the tropies, are badly drained 
and ill-ventilated, the greater number of them being extremely unclean 
habitations. Mat upon mat is often piled upon the naked earth until the 
bottom layer is a mass of decomposition ; the consequence is that vermin 
abound, and the natives have to resort to the use of lime in order to keep 
themselves personally free from the pest. Contagious diseases of every kind 
spread amongst them like wildfire—an epidemie kills them off by thousands. 
Should we not endeavour to prevent this? The natives should be induced ` 
to build their houses upon higher ground, not upon the sea-shore; also to 
keep them in open spaces. In many inland villages I have seen the rank 
vegetation clustering around the very walls of the huts, which sometimes it 
is even difficult to discover. A traveller all at once stumbles on a native 
village buried in the luxuriant growth of the tropics. More wood and stone 
should be used in the construction of the private dwellings; coral will make 
a good floor when wood is not to be obtained. 
The natives are also very improvident in their domestic habits, sometimes 
gorging to excess, at other times almost starving ; they have no regular 
hours for taking food, but the principal meal is towards evening. Their 
chief article of diet is vegetable, which renders them incapable of sustaining 
any very prolonged labour. It is doubtful whether the free use of cocoa-nut 
is beneficial to health; in my opinion, maize would be found far more 
nutritious. The dense coast population of Ceylon is chiefly supported by 
the eoeoa-nut, and we often hear of great epidemies raging in that island; 
some 10,000 natives were carried off by cholera in 1867. 
; Hardly sufficient attention is paid to the purity of the water supply, 
upon which health in the tropies so greatly depends. Where running water 
is used, the streams are generally fouled by the natives, and standing water 
ought to be avoided ;—the great amount of vegetable decomposition eon. 
stantly taking place soon charges standing water with a pestilential deposit. 
Some of the islands are, however, in themselves very unhealthy. These are. 
prineipally to be found in Western Polynesia; why they should be so is à 
