Norwich bulletin., 1919-05-17
MYSTERIES OF THE
 PACIFIC OCEAN


 How did the fightless birds of New Zealand originate?
 What is the nearest living relative , to the extinct dodo of Samoa? i What is the import of the same species of fresh water fish in two rivers situated on opposite sides of the Pacific?
 . Did a land mass fly out of what is now the Pacific ocean before this planet was cooled and form the moon?"
 These are just d few Of the many lines of inquiry whicL science will turn to in the Pacific Ocea Il after the peace conference has adjusted the many col onial questions affecting New Guinea the Carolines, the Marshall Islands and the numerous other holdings in this i least known region in the world, ac- cording to a bulletin from the Ma tional Geographic Society.
 The writer of the communication : upon which the bulletin is based, Leo ] pold C.. Blackman. continues:
 1 Much valuable material also will l be collected to assist in a better un- derstanding of the growth of our own civilization from elemental savagery for it is reasonable to suppose that the primitive wants of man in different ages and regions have called forth similar expedients to satisfy them. ''Other important objects of investi- gation for the ethnologist will touch the various racial types into which the Pacific islanders are divided. Of these three are generally recognized. of whom the Papuans and Polynesians appear to show the widest divergences with the Micronesians occupying the intermediate ground and possessing affnities of race, language, and GUS tom within the other two. The pre- sence of two distinct races of man in the Pacific suggests two periods and sources Of immigration and adds diff iculty to an already perplexins ques- ton, for the demarkation between the divisions of the races is by no means well defined. but is complicated by the admixture of many. other races of both oriental and occidental origin.
 "The Papuans may be generally said 1 to inhabit New Guinea, the Solomons New Caledonia. and Fiji. Their most obvious characteristics may be briefly l summed up by stating that they are 1 irreligious, democratic. quarrelsome cannibalistic, and hostile to strangers l They possess no hereditary chiefs paint or scar the body rather thar l wear clothes, cook in earthen pots 1 chew DeIels ana IneiE speech IS prokGI
 up into number of apparently ire. l concilable diabetes. The Papuans ar. 1 the least attractive of any Pacific isl.
 anders, and the island groups, whicf they occupy are among the leas known of the Pacific and have been fol many generations summed by marin Il CTS and associated with everything that is of evil repute in the recore of the ocean.
 "The Polynesians in many attribute, are greatly at variance with the Pa puan islanders. They possess, gener ally speaking, an elaborate religiou system, an established order of here ditary chiefs and weil-defned socia castes. They are friendly to stranger fond of dress, expert manufacturers 0 Kapa cloth, and intrepid seamen an, navigators. They tattoo instead O
 scar the body. seldom practice canni
 balisnl, cook in earthen ovens instea, of in earthen pots, drink ava. an,
 possess a common language under standable throughout New Zealand Hawii, Samoa, Tahiti, and the Pau
 motu Islands.
 ''Of all the Pacific races the greates interest attaches to the Polynesial