1ST DISTRICT. 2ND. DO. 3RD DO. 4TH DO. Under eighteen 706 309 372 685 Above eighteen 2,229 1,043 1,178 2,134 ------ ------ ------ ------ Total 2,935 1,352 1,550 2,819 ------ ------ ----- ------ "Here," Sir G. Simpson continues, "is an average of one person under eighteen, to rather more than three persons above it--a state of things which would carry depopulation written on its very face, unless every creature, without exception, were to attain the good old age of seventy-five." To this we add a remark upon the bearing of the early period of marriages throughout Polynesia. Not _one_--but _two_--generations are included in the population under eighteen years; since before that time boys and girls have begun to have boys and girls of their own. This disproportion accounts for the decrease. But what accounts for the disproportion? In 1824, Mr. Stuart wrote that--"in those parts of the islands where the influence of the mission had not extended, two-thirds of the infants born perish by the hands of their own parents before attaining the first or second year of their age." In 1840, there were found in Kanai out of 5,541 adults, only sixty-eight, and sixty-five women who had more than two children each, and that with a bounty, in the shape of an exemption from certain taxes, upon a number to that amount; whilst in Woahoo the births were sixty-one, the deaths one hundred and thirty-two. Distant though it be, the Tahitian group is the nearest point to-- NEW ZEALAND. _Native name of northern island._--Ikana, Mawi. _Native name of southern island._--Tavai, Punamu. _Native name of the language._--Maori. CHATHAM ISLAND. _Locality._--Twelve degrees east of New Zealand. _Appearance of the natives._--Colour dark; so much so as to be called by the New Zealanders, _Blafello=Black-fellow_, a term adopted from the English. Such are the larger islands and archipelagoes of Polynesia. To these must be added the following smaller groups. UNION GROUP. _Locality._--Five degrees due north of the Navigators' Islands. _Names._--1. Bowditch Isle, or Fakaafo. 2. Duke of York's Island, or Oatafu. 3. Duke of Clarence's Island, or Nukunono. _Population._--About one thousand. _Structure._--Coralline. _Language._--Intelligible to the Samoans. _Food._--Coco-nuts, pandanus-nuts, fish. Although so near the Equator, the Fakaafo people are the fairest of the Polynesians. VAITUPU GROUP. _Name._--1. De Peyster I., or Nukufetau. 2. Tracy's I., or Vaitupu. 3. Ellice's I., or Funafati. _Language._--Intelligible to the Samoans. _Real or supposed peculiarity._--The bow used in De Peyster's Island. Except in the Navigators' Isles; rare elsewhere.