37 
Mr. Bullee. — There is no sound of the letter l in the Maori language, 
but the letter r has a sound approaching that of d in some words ; nor have 
we a sibilant in Maori. [Mr. Buller here repeated the same passage in 
the Maori language]. 
Mr. Whit:\iee. — With regard to the sibilant, that only occurs in the 
Samoan and the Ellice Islands. Samoa is called by most of the other natives 
Hamoa, with or without the aspirate. 
Mr. Moulton. — We have the sibilaut in Tonga. 
Mr. Whitmee. — Yes, that is a third example in which it occurs in a com- 
paratively few words. 
Mr. E. Seeley. — I may say with reference to the missions, that it is re- 
presented that the Papuan race received Christianity more slowly than the 
other races, and yet that the natives of the Eiji Islands received it readily, 
— certainly with some delay at first, but afterwards thoroughly. 
Mr. Whetmee. — Yes, that is so ; but it should always be remembered 
respecting the Eijians that they are not pure Papuans. 
Mr. Seeley. — With reference to the question of the extinction of these 
races, it is an idea held by many at the present day, that the degraded races of 
the world die out as they receive civilization — that they are unable to bear 
civilization. I do not believe this, and I should like to know whether the 
same process of extinction is going on among these races that has gone on 
among some others with whom civilization has come in contact ? Is not this 
extinguishing process the fault of the Europeans rather than of their civiliza- 
tion ? It is the custom now-a-days to identify people by their custom of 
land tenure, and the land tenure custom of these people is that of Ireland. 
Mr. Whitmee. — The introduction of Christianity is more difficult among 
the black than among the brown races, and this is certainly the case in the 
New Hebrides. In the Loyalty Islands the people have become Christians 
more rapidly than in others. We had a large force to go in and Christianize 
the people, who are somewhat mixed there. The asserted general decay of 
the Polynesians is an interesting question, which I should have liked to have 
discussed to-night ; but it would have made my paper too long. Mr. Wallace, 
in a book which I only received last Saturday, says, that these people are 
dying out ; but he takes no notice of the statistics which show that they 
are not dying out. Some years ago Professor Rolleston delivered an address 
to the British Association at its meeting in Bristol, and he then gave some facts 
which he had received from missionaries with regard to these people, showing 
that they were not dying out all over the Pacific. At that time he wrote to 
me for some further information, and I collected statistics, from which I found 
that while in some of the islands the people were most decidedly dying out, 
in other islands the previous decrease had stopped, while in some it had 
turned, through the influence of Christianity, to an increase. Where these 
races are dying out, it is owing to the fact that so-called civilized men went 
among them before Christianity with its beneficial influences was introduced. 
The white man went with his vices and strong drinks before the morality 
and religion of the Gospel were carried to those people, and thus the seeds of 
