B2 was fairly well filled by enthusiasts who braved a drenching downpour last Tuesday to hear Dr. Ernest Beaglehole give the second of the series of lectures on Pacific problems, "The Peoples of the Pacific."

Dr. Beaglehole made an orthodox beginning by referring to the enormity of his subject, which embraced at least 102 different peoples numbering 750 million representatives if ah the main racial classifications.

At this stage Dr. Beaglehole laid down and elaborated upon three conclusions that anthropologists have come to on the subject of race. These are that there is no such thing [unclear: s] a pure race, that no racial type is stable, and that no race is either superior to or more primitive than another.

The first of these facts was brought clearly home to those who sought to establish the purity of the Nordic race, which even in its home in Sweden is in a minority, and they were reduced to postulating Nordic souls in non-Nordic bodies and non-Nordic souls in Nordic bodies.

The lack of stability in racial types when there is intermixture with a change of environment and diet can be seen in the Pacific even in one or two generations, for example in Hawaii, where the Japanese already show marked differences in height, head-shape, weight, etc., as compared with their fellows in Japan.

Finally, the idea of a superior race is supported neither by biology nor by history nor by intelligence tests. It cannot be said that any one race has contributed more to culture and civilization than another. Race, language and culture are three independent variables which may connect with one another at different times for different reasons, but never permanently. In the case of intelligence tests, allowance must of course be made for differences in environment, and Dr. Beaglehole gave some amusing illustrations of how unsuitable tests designed for one people might be if applied to another.

The Half Caste

The commonly held idea that intermarriage between members of different races must result badly was also scouted. If the health and vigour of both partners is good the results should be good. Social attitudes are to blame for any ill-effects. This is illustrated by the difference between the observed results of Chinese-European unions in Shanghai, where they are looked down upon, and in Hawaii, where they are regarded as quite normal.

The Pacific provides excellent conditions for understanding race-mixture. There are examples of contacts ending in all three of the possible ways—extermination, resistance, and compromise. Extermination like that of the Tasmanians and South American Indians is very probably occurring to-day in the Japanese mandated islands like the Marshalls.

The lecturer made a plea for greater understanding on the part of the dominant race where compromise had to take place. He pointed out how vitally affected native peoples were by the changes the white man had brought about in fields such as those of economics, warfare and religion, instancing especially all that was involved in doing away with such main-pins of the social structure as the highly-ceremonial custom of headhunting, and the shock to the natives on discovering that Christian missionaries brought a new moral code as well as a new religion. All these problems required not merely theoretical but soundly practical treatment on our part.

Though there was a fair attendance, one would have expected to see more students at this series of lectures. Older people seemed to compose quite half of last Tuesday's audience. It was, of course, examination week, and the night was unusually bad, but surely students are no less vitally concerned in Pacific problems than their elders.

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