394 Essays. 



Austral, and Tahitian, wtile it is used by the Marquesan and Hervey 

 Islanders, and serves for t in tiie Sandwicli group. There can, however, be 

 but little doubt, that had those dialects been reduced to writing by one man, 

 or one party of men, the few differences which appear would be even less 

 than they noAv are. At present it is almost difficult to say which of those 

 eight should be considered as the standard or leading dialect ; but while the 

 writer has always inclined to the ISTew Zealand, partly from internal philo- 

 logical considerations observed in comparing it with the cognate dialects, 

 and partly from the fact of its having, as already stated, remarkable affinity 

 with those the more distant, e.g. Sandwich group and Easter Island, he is 

 now strengthened in his opinion, in finding that Mr. Williams (l.m.) was 

 also nearly of the same opinion, although he knew very little indeed of that 

 of New Zealand. He says, "I shall select the Tahitian as the standard, 

 and compare the others with it. I do this, however, not because I think it 

 the original, for tlie JLervey Islands dialect ap-pears to possess superior claims 

 to that title, as it is so much more extensively spoken, and bears a closer affinity 

 to the other dialects than the Tahitian, but because the latter was first reduced 

 to system." Now, as the Hervey Islands (Rarotonga) and the New Zea- 

 land dialects are very near each other, it will not perhaps be too much 

 to assume that the New Zealand dialect, spoken as it is by the largest 

 number of natives, and over the greatest area, is the standard or leading 

 dialect ; but this will be still more clear when its philological claims come to 

 be considered. 



IV. — PALiEOKTOLOGICAL. 



50. The question has very often been asked, Whence came the people 

 who were found inhabiting the islands of New Zealand? and this question has 

 not yet been satisfactorily answered. It is therefore purposed to take up 

 the consideration of this subject, and possibly to place some matters con- 

 nected with it in a new or clearer light. 



(1.) Are the present New Zealanders autochthones ? The commonly 

 received statement that the whole globe was peopled from one pair, which 

 pair primarily resided in Western Asia ; the traditions of the people them- 

 Belves ; and (chiefly) their cultivated plants being exotics, and their only 

 domestic animal not indigenous ; and their language radically agreeing with 

 that of other island groups, — are the present reasons for disallowing this. 



(2.) Were there autochthones ? Possibly, or rather very likely. («.) From 

 the fact that no large island like New Zealand, however distant from the 

 nearest land, is uninhabited. (S.) Prom the fact that nearly all the numerous 

 islands in the Pacific, though vastly smaller in size, teem with population, 

 (c.) From the fact of a remnant, at present existing in the Chatham Islands 



