TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE, 
1875. 
I.— MISCELLANEOUS. 
—— 
Arr. I.—On the probable origin of the Maori Races.* By W. 8. W. Vaux, 
M.A., Baliol College, Oxford, and F.R.5. 
[Communicated to the Wellington Philosophical Society by James Hucror, M.D., C.M.G., 
F.R.S.) 
Tue question of the origin of the Maori or native race of New Zealand may, 
it appears to me, be conveniently considered under the three following 
heads. 
I. Their own Traditions; which must, however, be accepted with some 
reservation, not that we have any right to suppose on their part, an inten- 
tion to deceive, but because the reports given and published as unquestion- 
able, especially by the Missionaries, are likely, in many instances, to 
represent rather the ideas of the individual persons who have been specially 
examined, than the assured judgment of the whole nation. 
Il. The Ethnological Connexion and Affinities, real or imaginary, between 
them and other peoples, as inferred on scientific principles, or from peculiar 
existing customs, by European scholars. 
III. The relation, if any, between the Maori language, as traceable 
during the last hundred years, and those of the inhabitants of other islands 
in the Pacific Ocean, indicating, as such a connexion if proved, might be 
* This paper is the substance of one read before the British Association at Bristol 
Aug. 31, 1875, with considerable additions. 
