Hutchinson. — Hawaii-wei and the FJawaiians. 467 



It may be deemed quite practicable to devise experiments to test the 

 question whether gravitation is due to the rotation of stationary corpus- 

 cules or not. With adequate and effective means the following experiment 

 might be considered sufficient for this purpose. Let a very short solid 

 cylinder, of any hard or dense substance, have fixed in it an axis on which 

 it can be revolved by a driving-belt. Such a short cylinder would be very 

 much like a thick grinding-stone. It should be from 1 to 2 feet in diameter, 

 and from 6 to 12 inches in thickness. The denser the material the better, 

 but tough hard heavy wood would probably do, as the conditions could be 

 varied to suit the density of the substance. This wheel should be made to 

 revolve with a velocity of not less than twenty revolutions per second ; and 

 means should be provided for increasing the velocity up to 1,000 revolutions. 

 The weight of the wheel and axle would be determined first when at rest. 

 While revolving at any choseu velocity, let it again be weighed. It should 

 weigh less, and if the substance is dense and the velocity great, it should 

 weigh considerably less. It would be reasonable to suppose that the fixed 

 rotating corpuscules of the ether would be very much disturbed, — would 

 not have time to adjust themselves to the revolving wheel, and would there- 

 fore have a less gravitational effect. Such an experiment as this, however, 

 if effectively made with the best appliances, would probably be somewhat 

 costly, — at least for any one individual. 



Art. LVIII. — Hawaii-nei and the Hawaiians. By F. B. Hutchinson, L.E.C.P. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 26th August, 1882.] 

 Abstract. 

 The Sandwich Islands are famed for their beauty and fertility. Five thou- 

 sand miles distant from the New Zealand group, they are peopled by almost 

 the same race, a race speaking a language not differing more widely from 

 the Maori than the dialects of the latter do from one another. 



The Sandwich group consists of five larger and several smaller islands, 

 lying in a line from north-west to south-east. Beginning from the north- 

 west Kauai is the oldest, has no signs of recent volcanic action. Earth- 

 quakes are the rarest, the rocks are the most broken down into soil. Hence 

 it is the most fertile ; it is spoken of as the Garden Island. As a whole, 

 the island radiates from one grand very precipitous mountain 6,000 feet 

 high. In this island the language, though differing so slightly from that of 

 the other islands as hardly to form a dialect, approaches a little more nearly 

 the Maori. R is often used for L, and T for K. Thus one hears there of 

 Hanalei pronounced Hanarei, and Kauai as Tauai. The forests on Kauai 

 are magnificent, and the plantations mostly prosperous. 



