A HARVARD SCIENTIST.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 577, 4 August 1909, Page 8

A HARVARD SCIENTIST.

NOW IN UfJKlSlununun. HIS VIEWS ON THE PACIFIC RACE. {By Oorrcgbondcut.i ... Christchurch,. August. 3.; A pleasant and profitable'.way of spending oi the Harvard University, vacation has been, re adopted by, Professor R. B. Dixon (now visit- ti ing .dhristchurch), .who fills tlio chair of bi anthropology at that institution.'' Ho left ni America at tho beginning of June, and his T itinerary before he, gets. back in tho begin- bi ning of October, will have taken him through cl Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia. D Speaking to-day to a Press " reporter, si Professor Dixon said that it had been of j 1( great advantage to him to see the collection of anthropological interest in New Zealand., . "It makes one want to come back, and spend four or. five months .here," lie said. "Your J 1 Polynesian Society has done a lot of good 11 work—in fact, New Zealand _is about the 11 only one; of the British : colonies, which has u done anything of any magnitude in the way . c of examining into the lives_and traditions ot P its primitive people.; . Things have been, r found in New Zealand.which are unlike.ordj- t. aary..Maori'things, but which,-by their , very » unlikencss, "h'elp .us to answer the question r as where the Maoris came from. There u things may thus bo.very important links in w chains-of reasoning, and this refers particu-. tl larly to, the'finding of;such things as the. i carvings which have been, discovered in a n cave'.in the North Island. I .These have a C ampler type of ornamentation than one'finds 11 ou typical, Maori carvings, sonie of them liav- a ing' single, instead of the double or, treble lines 'for the outline of the figures, thus E pointing'to' an, earlier, stage of the art.,; A club.'from .Fiji,; shown in .the Christchurch, E Museum,, lias a typical Maori decoration,, s and to me it was quite curious. . t Polynesian Contact with America. j ,"One thing of interest," continued tlio. t professor, "is the evidence of a. sporadic ] oontact of people from the • Pacific with the i people of America. It is entirely out of , the t quostion that the origin of the people is i to be sought in the Pacific, as some people ] suppose/ A few. racial • features may, How- s ever, have, been .derived 'from• the■ sugges-i j tions'of the Polynesian people , who Tiave i drifted, ashore, on to .the coast of America. ' If these ,people came , ashoro.in canoes, they 1 would have been speedily .absorbed 6r killed, 1 off by the Indians.... Nothing portainiri^/to i them, therefore/; survived, except the idea i of the. plank canoe, which is a typical Poly- i nesian thing, and .untypical of America, and, ye't it is to.be found on theCalifonrian coast,' " and on the const of Chile."Professor Dixon's, : particular,'field, of research,has been among the Califorriian and Oregon: tribes, and he has devoted pa:rticular, st'udy to their languages; of which there is an enormous number . Research Which Cannot Walt. "The pure Indians/'rhe said, "are decreasing rapidly, but their -.-'condition in general is'' pretty satisfactory. Tho Indian schools are beginning to produce their effect, and the people are taking on more and more', tho white man's iare'ableto support themselves.' : -Thq old reservations are'being brdken up, and' the land allotted to indiyidual/Indiaps,"'who''af©;' now farming in t'a*' small juayl'i' 'His own tvork was .'extremely fascinating/' ""The people," "he(' remarked,;' "don't seem' .to' recognise l .the; necessity of doing 'the work now'.' • Particularly in the Pacific , the w'ork'must be done within the next ten or fifteen 'years,'. l or it'-'never can ! 'be ; done. 'Yfy people who know the old tradition's and the old - ways: are;. out.• It' iff'.'not 1 a' 'thing, .which"- you: can - 'leaver-to the.'next'''. g'enerk,tion." > ;-- '/' -J" '. ; The appointment of Professor MabLaurin to' the position : of ! president' of chusetts Institute of .Technology;' was ■ referred to, and Professor Dixon; said that,the institute is the largest -and'best-known technical'school in AmericaV V It stood .at the. head- of all the schools; 'and everyone was much pleased 'that t-hs 'services'of Professor. MacLaurin had ibeen'jSecur'ed.'\'j /; ' '