184 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



here, were very fond of the sea. They went away as sailors, then came 

 back, married tlae girls, and procured for themselves cutters for oystering, 

 fishing, sealing, etc. But there being no good harbour at Euapuke, they left 

 and settled at Btewart Island. The remnant of the families of the old Maori 

 nobility is still here. They have some sheep on the island, the profit of 

 which gives them a living. 



It will have been seen, that the common saying, " When a superior race 

 comes in contact with an inferior one, the latter must die out," does not 

 apply to the dying-out of the Maoris in New Zealand. I have lived thirty- 

 seven years among these Southern Maoris, and am not unmindful of 

 observing the signs of the times around me. I can positively say that the 

 coming of the Europeans has nothing to do with the dying-out of the 

 Maoris. They would have died out, only faster, if none of the stronger race 

 had ever come to New Zealand. They were dying-off very fast when I 

 came among them, thirty-seven years ago, and the few pakehas, who had 

 come only a few years before my arrival, could not have had the slightest 

 influence among them to that effect. On the contrary, by keeping discipline 

 in their families, and inspiring their Maori wives with higher ideas than 

 grovelling animalism, their half-caste children were lively and healthy. 

 The Maoris, as a race, had outlived their time. Still, a remnant will be 

 saved ; but it will be melted into the European settlers. 



Still I think there is, in a higher sense, a connection between the dying- 

 out Maoris and the coming-in of a superior race to take their place and to 

 make a better use of it. I believe that God takes a great interest in the 

 ways people and races have to work out their destinies under his, mostly 

 unseen, guidance ; and that when the Maori race was going to die he 

 caused a race, best fitted for his purpose of mercy, to come and smooth the 

 bed of the dying Maoris with Christian consolation and bodily comfort. 

 " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 



Art. XV. — Fallacies in the Theory of Circular Motion. 

 By T. Wakelin, B.A. 

 \_Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 21st January, 1882.] 

 If a body be set in motion in empty space it would move on in a straight 

 line for ever, if not subject to any action outside itself. If the body be 

 deflected out of a straight course some force outside itself must have acted 

 upon it. "When a body is deflected from a straight course continuously, so 



