work. It would be inexcusable on the part of one who has easy access to books to deal solely with so early an issue of a work which has passed through several subsequent editions. My excuse is, that a mission station in Fiji affords no such access, even now that the group forms a part of the British empire, and that, until within the last two or three years, we were almost entirely excluded from the outer world. The second edition of the "Origin of Civilization" was the latest issue I could procure when I visited Australia in 1871.
With reference to the spelling of Australian words, I have endeavoured to follow a uniform plan, by sounding the consonants as in English, and giving the vowels their proper sounds. My difficulty here has been to find out what sounds our correspondents intended to express, and I cannot suppose that I have overcome this difficulty in every case.
I have used the word "class" in preference to tribe, sept, or clan, because each of these words is apt to have a sort of confused meaning to the reader which might tend to produce a wrong impression. The Greek "phratria " would be the most correct term; but, for several reasons, "class" seemed to be the more convenient for the special purposes of this memoir, to designate the primary divisions of a community, and their first subdivisions.
LORIMER FISON.
Fiji, August, 1878.
