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POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES, 
Some of the chiefs learned to write on a slate^ but 
these have always been articles too scarce and valuable 
to be in common use ; they were very highly prized, and 
preserved with the greatest care. The greatest favour 
a chief could shew his son, has sometimes been to allow 
him to practise on his slate. We have often regretted 
that the supply was not more abundant, and though 
several hundreds of the thick slates, without frames, such 
as are used in the national schools, have been sent out 
by the Society, and others by the liberality of friends, 
they have not been sufficient to supply the different 
schools; so that many of the natives, who desire to 
possess them as their own, are still destitute. Framed 
slates are sometimes taken by traders, as articles of 
barter; but they are so liable to break, that the people 
greatly prefer the kind above alluded to. 
A copy-book has never been used for the purpose of 
learning to write; paper has always been too scarce and 
valuable amongst them, to admit of such an appropri¬ 
ation. And a copy-book, although highly prized, is used 
rather as a journal, common-place-book, or depository 
of something more valuable than mere copies. Writing 
paper is still a very valuable article, and would prove 
one of the most acceptable presents that could be sent 
them. 
I have often been amused on beholding a native, who had 
several letters to write, sitting down to look over his 
paper, and finding perhaps that he possessed but one 
sheet, has been obliged to cut it into three, four, or five 
pieces, and regulate the size of his letter, not by the 
quantity of information he had to communicate, but by the 
size of the paper he had to fill. I have recently received 
upwards of twenty letters from the natives, some of 
