Fate of Pacific Natives.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 January 1922, Page 4

Fate of Pacific Natives.

EXPERT’S CONCLUSIONS'.

SYDNEY, Lee. 29

important conclusions regarding the effect of civilisation upon the natives of the Pacific Islands have been announced hv an. expert in anthropology, Captain Pitt Rivers who has just returned from Papuan, and the mandated -territories. Captain Pitt Hirers (who is private secretary to the Governor-General) studied anthropology at Oxford under Professor AJcDougall, a world-wide authority on the subject. Captain Pitt Rivers stated that there was present among the natives the almost universal phenomenon of a rapid shrinkage of the population. There Was very little endemic disease, and knowing the history of the people he was able to arrive at an important . conclusion. He thinks that the interference. with the tribal system--and' its natural result, endless small wars—■ -has had a very marked effect on the me of the people. Huror-ean wars lulled off the physically fit. whereas in the wars of the Ston - Age, which the Pacific Islander belonged to, the weakest were killed and the fittest mentally and physically survived to father the next generation. Also there was no surplus of males. It had been disced creel that among primitive peoples a surplus of males usually had a tatal effect on the life of the ’ace. This wri what was happening in the Pacific Islands and it was practically the same as was occurring on the Continent of Australia. For example, in the 'Hale „f New Couth Wales the last census showed' that among the handful of surviving aborigines there Were A!) per cant more males than females. The effect of a surplus of males who could not he eliminated Was becoming fatal to the existence of the primitive rac-s of the Pacific. Peace was having a more fatal effect than war. This was a contingency that no one had on.stem The old tribal system was going, and it appeared only too probable that in the Pacific the tribesmen would perish with it.