Thomson. — On Motion Connection. 237 



seat of the Maori race. Aud here I may express a thought which has 

 occurred to me, in conclusion, — that the native chiefs of New Zealand, while, 

 by the treaty of Waitangi, they ceded aud yielded up the sovereignty of 

 their territories to the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland only forty-four 

 years ago, now also, in her capacity as Empress of India, is she the Sovereign 

 of then' race by archaic connection from time immemorial, far precedmg the 

 age of history or of letters. 



Art. XX. — Moriori Connection. 

 By J. TuRNBULL Thomson, F.E.G.S., F.E.S.S.A., etc. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2Zrd August, 1879.] 

 The basis of this paper rests on a Moriori vocabulary, prepared by S. 

 Deighton, Esq., E.M., Chatham Islands, furnished to the Native Depart- 

 ment, Wellington, at the instance of Government, and it forms a proper 

 sequel to the several papers I have written on the " Whence of the Maori," 

 etc. 



For distant readers it is necessary that I should explain that the Moriori 

 tribe is by tradition said to have occupied the New Zealand islands before the 

 coming of the Maori. A small remnant now only exists in the isolated and 

 remote Chatham Islands, situated some 200 miles to the east of the main 

 group ; and to record what yet exists of their language has for some years 

 been the desire of the authorities of the department in charge of native 

 affairs. By the courtesy of Mr. T, W. Lewis, secretary to the Native 

 Department, I have been entrusted with the analysis of a copy of the 

 above-mentioned vocabulary with the view of ascertaining its philological 

 connection with kindred races. 



The vocabulary consists of 168 words, principally radical or primary. 

 But, for the purposes of a comparative vocabulary*, the words are reduced 

 to 155 in number, and of these 115 are pure Maori ; hence the Moriori can 

 only be said to be a dialect of this Polynesian race which now inhabits New 

 Zealand — it is distinctly not a separate language. Under these circum- 

 stances, it would be tedious and out of place to transcribe the whole of Mr. 

 Deighton's valuable vocabulary. I have therefore confined myself to 

 ' making a comparison of those Moriori words which are not pure Maori, 

 showing where they are to be found amongst other Malagas-Malayo- 

 Polynesian, or Barat races. 



* Some of the words are phrases, and for some I have not been able to find the 

 Maori equivalent. 



