ABSTRACT
There is ground for believing that men of science in Europe and America were alive to the desirability of obtaining more exact knowledge of the South Sea Island tribes and their ways. Their difficulty seems to have been to find a justification of the expense which the necessary investigations were likely to entail. If money were to be forthcoming, it must be for something that promised a return. Study of the botany, the zoology, or the mineralogy of Oceania might, indeed was expected to, result in the discovery of marketable commodities. Even now, as Mr Christian has probably found, it is well to combine, at least to a small extent, examination of the
economic botany of an island with linguistic researches. Till lately, if not till this very moment, the general interest in the branches of science dealing with material was greater than in those which deal with man. The latter were, and perhaps still are, thought less worth attention by many of those who think about science at all. We may count with confidence upon greater interest being taken in the fortunes of an expedition to the Caroline Islands to prospect for gold or rubies, than in one to investigate the structure of the language or the history of the inhabitants; and the greater interest in the former would not be confined to those who simply desire to add to their riches.
