The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-12-27


labor yet remaining to be worked out
! and put in order. The desirability OF
Honolulu's serving as center for this
, work is now generally recognized. I'm
! til recently the region under consider
alton had been regarded as so remote
from the centers of civilization that ii
would be difficult, many thought inn
possible, to carry on such exploration
as here proposed. Happily, inaccessi-
b1llty is no longer a reason for delay
in attempting SO important a work.
Mr.. Bryan subdivides the plan as fol-
lows:
THE PROPOSED EXPLORING EX-
petition.
The plan for field work would be
to acquire, if possible, an especially
equipped yacht of from five to seveIs
hundred tons capacity, which would
be provided with sails as well as oil
burning engines and fitted with the
necessary accommodations for fifteen
scientific men, including laboratories,
field library, storage tanks, etc.
This vessel, using Honolulu as a base,
and establishing secondary focal points
from which to carry on its work, would
make cruises to the various groups of
islands in the Pacific region. The voy-
ages can be so arranged that the en-
tire region, with its more than two
thousand islands, could be covered in
about fifteen excursions. Thus the
vast territory would be worked over,
group by group, with a fully equipped
corps of especially trained field scient-
lists; the time required to complete the
work, of course, varying with the num-
Der and size of the parties in the field.
Each group would be as completely
studied as was possible before taking
up work in a second group. In this
way the work, for example, on the
Society Islands, would be uniform and
complete, every department of their
ethnology and natural history would
be treated, both in the field and in
the subsequent publication, by a
specialist, who, by reason of care
fully arranged plan, would study each
island with an understanding of the
great ultimate object, namely, knoNl-
edge of the Pacific ocean as a whole
The data thus gathered would be even
and of a comparable character
The expedition, through the central
office in Honolulu, would be affiliated
with the various universities and muse
ums of the world in such a way as
to offer the much needed opportunity
for actual field work to the graduate
students of those institutions. Thus
the undertaking would be supplied with
a constantly increasing corps of young
and enthusiastic naturallsts for the
arduous work of the field exploration,
who would bring with them to the !
work the support of their especial in
by reason of their appoint |
ments on the expeditions having been
gained, in the main, through merito-
rious work during their preparatory |
courses. 1t is evident that work of |
this character is not only supplementary |
to the university and museum training, !
out that such an expedition would fur
aisI scientific employment for many
graduates of our colleges and unlversl-
lies along the line of their especial
and would provide means
If doing postgraduate work under re-
during the critical tlme
between leaving college and the find
ng of satisfactory or permanent EN-
oloyment in scientific pursuits. On the
,ther hand, the expeditions would be-
.arried on at a minimum of expense,
While offering splendid facilities for
he development of the scientific men
# the future.
SCOPE OF THE FIELD INVESTI-
CATIONS.
Of the many SUBJECTS which require
investigation in this vast
egion, perhaps none are of greater inn
,ortance than those with which the
cience OF ethnology deals. The rapid
hanges which civilization and COM
neree are effecting will soon obliter
tie all that remains of the civiliza-
ion of a primitive people, the I'M
ortance of the study of which is best |
Understood when it can be truthfully
aid that none of our authorities agree ]
II the origin or racial affinity of these
aces nor do thev concur on the diree-
ion from whence came the original
Inhabitants of this great ocean.
Therefore, the main work of the !
xpedltions would be TO study first
anded the races of man inhabiting s
ne Pacific, in a manner similar to
aat in which the Bureau of American q
thnology has studied the American
ndian. Such work should cover their I
hysical. mental, linguistic, social, re- c
gious, aesthetic and industrial dew '
opment, as well as the problems of
Ice mixture and the causes of racial c
eeay among the many primitive tribes T
Ihabiting the multitude of islands /
ALTERED over the hundreds of thou r
lnds of square miles of ocean in V
uded in the region. Since the mate s
Continued on Page Two)