Address to the Department of Anthropology (Biological Section) of the British Association : Bristol, August 25, 1875 / by George Rolleston.
- Rolleston, George, 1829-1881.
- Date:
- 1875
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Address to the Department of Anthropology (Biological Section) of the British Association : Bristol, August 25, 1875 / by George Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![those regions by the London Missionary Society; and we here shall value highly any papers which we may be favoured with from men who have had such long and such favourable opportunities for forming opinions on matters which touch at once our national and our scientific responsibilities. What question can be of closer concernment than that of the possibility of rescu- ing the inhabitants of Polynesia from that gradual sliding into extinction which some writers appear to acquiesce in as the natural fate of such races. As a text for our discussions upon this subject, I will here quote to the Department a passage from the continuation of Waitz’s ‘ Anthropologie ’ by Dr. Gerland—the author, be it remembered, of a special Monograph upon the Causes of the Decrease and Dying-out of Native Races, which appeared in 1808 (‘ Ueber das Aussterben der Naturvblker,’ Leipzig), and has been often referred to by writers on anthropology since that year, and is referred to by himself in the passage I now lay before you. It runs thus (‘Anthropologie der Naturvolker,’ von Dr. Theodor Waitz, fortgesetzt von Dr. Georg Gerland, 1872, vol. ii. pp. 512, 513) :— “The decrease of the Polynesian populations is not now going on as fast as it was in the first half of the century ; it has in some localities entirely ceased, whilst in others the indigenous population is actually on the increase *. From this it is clear that the causes for that disappearance of the native races which we discussed at length in the little book above referred to, are now less or no longer operative. For, on the one hand, the natives have adapted themselves more to the influences of civilization; they are not so amenable as they were at first to the action of diseases, although we still from time to time have instances to the contrary at the present moment (see, for example, Ev. Miss. Mag. 1867, p. 300, Cheever, 295) [or, I may add, our own recent information as to the destructive outbreak of measles in Fiji] ; they have become more able to respond to the efforts to raise their mental and moral status than they were; and, with the advance of civilization, they have begun to avail themselves more of the remedial agencies which it brings with it. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that the Europeans themselves, in spite of many important exceptions, have nevertheless done a very great deal for the natives, and are always doing more and more for them. Whilst in this matter the English Government deserves great praise, and whilst Sir George Grey has done more for the Polynesians than almost any other man, the missionaries nevertheless stand in the very first rank amongst the benefactors of these races, with their un- wearied self-sacrificing activity; and Russel (‘ Polynesia,’ Edinb., 1840) is entirely right in saving that all the progress which the Polynesians have made was really set on foot by the missionaries. They have had the greatest influence upon the civilization of the natives; they have taken their part and protected them when they could; they have further given them the fast foothold, the new fresh object, motive, and meaning for their whole existence, of which they stood so much in need. The Polynesians have often declared to the missionaries, ‘ If you had not come, we should have perished;’ and they would have perished if their country had not been so discovered. The resources of their physical life were exhausted; and they had none of the moral nor ideal support for the needs of their spiritual nature which they stood so urgently in need of, as they had already attained a grade of culture too high to allow of their living without some support of that kind. It is true that extraneous circumstances have often, especially in the outset, brought about their conversion—as, for example, the authority of their chiefs, the force of example, as also, on the other hand, the occurrence of misfortune, great mortalitv, the loss of a battle, after which they wished to make the experiment of worshipping * See ‘Times’ of last Saturday, August 21, 1875, p. 6, where the Natal correspondent, writing of the Caffres, tells us, “ we shall have to begin civilizing the natives some day. Wc had better have begun with them ten years ago at 200,000 strong, than now at 350,000 ; but we had better begin with them now at 350,000 than ten years hence when they may number half-a-million.” Since writing as above I have received through my friend the Rev. W. Wyatt Gill a long extract from a paper written in 1801, by the Rev. A. W. Murray. This paper fully confirms Gerland’s more recent views as to the prospects of the native races. Mr. Murray, having spent forty years in Polynesia, has the best right to be heard upon it. A 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22440215_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
