Dr. Peter H. Buck

ANYONE acquainted with the Poly nesians is aware of the dread in which members of that race hold the bones of their ancestors. Judge the horror, therefore, of Dr. Peter H. Buck (“Te Rangi Hiroa”) when, as a medical student, he once entered the sacred pre cincts of the Medical School at Otago University, Dunedin (NZ), and read a notice offering various prices for Maori skulls, pelves, and complete skeletons.

This gave him such a shock that he al most abandoned his quest for Western knowledge. However, in later years, on returning to New Zealand on a troop ship after the last war, he put his knowledge of anatomy to excellent pur

pose. It provided him with a unique opportunity for measuring Polynesian craniums. In all, 424 full-blooded Maoris were examined with the help of a craniometer, and his conclusions were subsequently published. The Bishop Museum of Hawaii (of which Dr. Buck is now Director), was the first scientific institution to tackle this subject on a comprehensive scale. More than 2,500 living people from representative parts of Polynesia have been examined. The results, which have not yet been pub lished, should be extremely valuable.

“Eriki”.

Mr. Geoffrey Buckland, of the AWA station at Rabaul, New Guinea, has returned to Sydney.

Mr. J. Sedgers, plantation inspector for W. R. Carpenter and Co. Ltd., in New Guinea, was in Sydney in December, on furlough.