A DYING REMNANT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1055, 25 January 1913, Page 4

A DYING REMNANT.

BARREN ISLAND FAMILIES.

Mr E. W. G. Buchner, the Government research scholar at the Melbourne University, has just returned to Melbourne after a trip to the islands In Bass Strait (says the Argus). Mr Buchner said that his task of collecting data with respect to the half-caste population on Barren Island had proved of great interest. This little settlement on the wind-swept islands was.particularly valuable from an ethnological point of view, from the fact that the inhabitants formed the last link with the extinct Tasmanian aborigines. Although there were only nine families on Barren Island, the population consisted of 150 individuals altogether, so it was very clear that the half-castes had intermarried to a great extent. In the days of early settlement in Tasmanian a number of hard living men, including several escaped' convicts, took up residence on the various islands and engaged in sealing. Several of these men took Tasmanian native women with them, and from such a nucleus has grown the present settlement.

Mr Buchner states that, in his opinion, the individual of the

greatest scientific interest on the island is Captain Phil Thomas, now in his 80th year. The old man holds a master mariner’s certificate issued in Hobort. His father was an old seafarer, Captain Thomas, who came from Cardiff to Hobait in 1830. A year or two later he married a full-blooded Tasmanian woman, Nimeranna by name, and there were several children, the present old islander being the eldest of the family. The subsequent family descent, Mr Buchner points out, opens a very interesting sidelight ou to the Mendelian law, which he hopes to further investigate. The old man, now slightly enfeebled, married some years ago a half-caste Tasmanian woman, and one of the sous of the union look lor his wife a quadroon Tasmanian. From this latter union there are three children. One of these a smart boy. is considerably darker than his grandfather, whilst the boy’s sister has the fair hair, white skin aud blue eyes of the Anglo-Saxon. Unfortunately, tuberculosis is rampant among the population on Barren Island. This appears to have become prevalent within the last few years, aud is believed to be due to the insanitary houses aud the general mode of living of the half castes.

A family of five during the mutton bird season regularly make about as the result of six weeks’ work, and for the rest of the year they do nothing. Mr Buchner states that, whilst some of the half-castes are of a decidedly superior type, others show very clearly that they possess inferior characteristics, attributable, no doubt, to their descent from some of the early day convicts.

Mr Buchner collected considerable scientific data of the halfcastes, securing finger, foot and hand prints, head measurements, body heights aud weights. Wheu these details are collated Mr Buchner believes that he will the more easily be able to trace the comparative racial characteristics of these lonely islanders.