The figures above exclude the population of all islands where the people are more or less strongly mixed with neighbouring races, such as the Micronesian, Melanesian and Papuan, and the half-caste Fijians.
At the end of the eighteenth century, estimates were made by Cook, Forster, and others, and the totals were 1,290,000 people inhabiting the same groups. On comparing these figures, the question arises: Have our efforts at civilizing this race been the blessing that we claim for it? Aua hoki!
From Nukuoro island in the far N.W. to Easter Island (Rapa-nui)[1] in the distant S E.; from Hawaii in the extreme N.E. to New Zealand (Aotea-roa) in the S.W., we find one people, speaking dialects of one language, having practically the same customs and beliefs, and bearing so great an affinity in physique, colour, and general appearance, that it is difficult to distinguish the inhabitants of one part from those of any other. And yet, to the close observer, there are differences distinguishable here and there, especially where the environment differs much. For instance, the Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, in the extreme S.W. part of the Polynesian area, present some differences in physique from the Tahitians, who are, as a
- ↑ Rapa-nui is the most common name of Easter Island, but it is also known as Te Pito-te-henua, which means either "The navel of the land," or "The end of the land." To those who favour the idea of a sunken continent, the tops of whose mountains are now represented by the islands scattered over the Pacific, and especially in the Pau-motu group, of which Easter Island forms the S.E. extremity, this name—Te Pito-te-henua—"The end of the land," may suggest a confirmation of the theory. But, whilst the "sunken continent" idea has no doubt much to support it, it seems to the writer that everything proves the Polynesians to have arrived in the Pacific long after the existence of such a land.
