ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 700, 17 April 1852, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the “ New Zealand Spectator.” Auckland, March Ist, 1852. • Sir, —As one object of the New • Zealand Society is to collect and disseminate accurate information not only respecting New Zealand, but also concerning the adjacent islands in the Pacific, allow me to correct an error in the report of a meeting of the New Zealand Society at Government House, as it appears in your paper of January 28th. The report says —“ There were also soma interesting specimens of ornaments and greenstone from the Loyalty Islands, the only islands in the Pacific, besides New Zealand, in which greenstone is known to exist, and the natives of which closely resemble the New Zealanders in their language, customs, and personal appearance.” If New Caledonia had been substituted for the Loyalty Islands the statement would have been so far correct. The Loyalty Islands are three low coral islands that run parallel with New Caledonia, and lie about thirty miles north-east of it. They contain, I believe, no greenstone ; but in New Caledonia greenstone is found in abundance ; at least adzes and beads made from greenstone aro plentiful ; end the natives all point to the interior of New Caledonia as the place where the greenstone is found. They set little value upon it; they sell their weapons and

ornaments made from it without any reluctance. While the New Zealanders call their manufactured greenstone Te moni gold o te Maori, the New Caledonians gladly exchange their greenstone for iron. They estimate it by its utilitarian not by its antiquarian value. They have found that edge tools made of iron cut much better than those made of stone, and they are therefore very willing to exchange a greenstone adze for a common tomahawk ; and on the same principle to give a string of greenstone beads, for what is much prettier, a string of common glass ones. But as European intercourse increases, these articles by becoming scarcer' will rise in value. New Caledonia is about 200 miles in length, and from 20 to 30 miles in breadth. In its general appearance, and in its geological formations, it is similar to the Middle Island of New Zealand, in which the greenstone is found. It is bleak and barren for a tropical island, mountainous from end to end, answering well to Scott’s description of “ Caledonia stern and wild," and is evidently the summit of some submerged mountain range. Norfolk Island appears to be a connecting peak between New Zealand and New Caledonia.

The nitives of New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands belong to the same race ; but neither in “language, customs, nor personal appearance,” have they any resemblance to the New Zealanders : the one are Papuans, the other Malays. The Papuan race commence at the Feejee Islands, and stretch away through all the groups in the western Pacific. The Malays stretch across from New Zealand to the Sandwich Islands,and eastward beyond Tahiti and the Marquesas. The two races have no more resemblance or relationship to each other than the descendants of Canaan can be supposed to have to those of Arphaxad ; and they appear to have had no intercourse with each other since the days that Nimrod founded Babylon, and Asshur went forth and builded Nineveh —or since those rival states were sending forth their respective colonies to people the great eastern continents and the numerous isles of the sea. One would suppose that the Papuans had come direct from Babel, and perpetuated the confusion of tongues among themselves to this very day, as on every island and among every tribe a distinct dialect is spoken. And as both the Feejeans and New Caledonians manufacture a rude kind of pottery, one might suppose that this was some remains of the plastic arts they bad brought with them from the jfiains of Shinar. To show that there is no resemblance in language between the natives of New Caledonia and the Loya’ty Islands and the New Zealanders, I shall subjoin the first five numerals: the numerals being one of the most common points of resemblance in cognate languages — moreover the Papuans count by fives, not by tens.

I am, Sir, Your’s, &c., JOHN INGLIS. —-

New Zealand. Yeng_en. New Caledonia. Lifu. Loyalty isle's. - One Tahi Hets Chas Two Rua Heluk Luete Three Torn Heyen Kunete Four Wha Pebits Eketc Five Rimu Nim Tibi.