238 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
Now, as to the use of a sort of “ s" amongst the native inhabitants of 
New Zealand. There ean be no doubt that an ** sh "" or rather a sibillated 
“h” was in use, not throughout the islands, but among the Ngapuhi: a few 
years ago the older Maoris and early settlers in the north had this form of 
pronunciation strongly, our old charts even had ** Shouraki" as the name 
of the gulf at the head of which we live. ** Shoutorou ” for the Little Bar- 
rier Island. The Mission Station on the Bay of Islands was called 
** Paishia," and many other instances could be cited. This sound, however, 
has gradually been falling into disuse with the Ngapuhi, partly owing to 
the large admixture of other tribes who were devoid of this expression of 
sound, caused by wars, notably **Shongis," and capture of slaves, from 
whom the bulk of the present people are descended ; partly owing to this 
sound being unrepresented in the alphabet used by the missionaries in their 
books, only ** h ” indicating all aspirated sounds in the translation of the 
Scriptures and other works of general circulation, hence, probably in 
another generation, all trace of the existence of any articulation of an “s” 
will be lost from the New Zealand tongue. 
But the tribes of this island had other distinctions in their speech. 
The Bay of Plenty tribes ignore the “ng” or nasal “n " using the plain 
“n” only, as the Tahitians and Sandwich Islanders. Again, in some 
words the Cook Strait people make their “ k” almost if not quite a “ g.” 
Captain Cook, following the sound caught by his ear, spells Motukokaka, 
the perforated island off Cape Brett, Motugogogo, with three **g's". A 
** d," too, used to find a plaee in some words, early travellers terming our 
pine a **eoudi." Mr. Maunsel affirms that the ** r " should in some words 
be pronounced almost as a “d” or “1.” Again, some tribes hardly have 
the letter ‘‘h”’ at all. 
The Mori-ori of Chatham Islands, and some few scattered people on the 
west coast of the Southern Island, speak another dialect. The difference 
between the tongues of the two islands was noticed by Captain Cook. I 
would note here a custom which makes changes in the vocabulary of dif- 
ferent tribes—that of a chief taking as a new name either some article of 
food or something used in the preparation of food. Thus should a chief 
take the name of “taro” some fresh word must be invented for that 
article, as to say that one was eating * taro" would be indeed a great 
kanga towards the chief, and amongst his own people the once familiar 
: word would cease to be applied to the esculent. 
Diversities of customs and habits as well as of speech are caused by 
circumstances. All the Mahori tribes dwell in islands, and use canoes and 
paddles as means of travelling. These latter differ as much as the patterns 
of tattooing. In the Sandwich Islands the handles are straight and the 
