POLYNESIA (Greek, polys, many; nesos, island), a geographical name applied col lectively by some writers to all the Pacific is lands of stnctly oceanic character, i. e., either of volcanic or coralline origin; by others restricted to the vast island-dotted region extending from southeastern Asia across the Pacific, and from Bering Strait southward to the Antarctic Ocean, also called Oceania. In an ethnological sense the term applies to the eastern groups in habited by the brown Polynesian race. A more exact method is the common division into sev eral sections: Australasia comprises Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, with other islands adjacent. The numerous islands extending from the Malay Peninsula to New Guinea are known collectively as Malaysia or the Malay Archi pelago. The Philippine Islands are often as sociated with those of Malaysia proper. The name Micronesia (Greek mikros, small, and taws) is commonly used as a collective name for the numerous small islands in the north western Pacific, between New Guinea and Japan; and Melanesia (Greek melas, black, and nitsos) includes New Guinea and a chain of islands extending southeastward to the Fiji Islands and New Caledonia, all chiefly in habited by Papuan races. All the remaining is lands, comprised for the most part within the parallels of 30° N. and 30° S. latitude, and between the meridians 180° and 120° W. longi tude, constitute Polynesia in the more definite sense of the term. Yet it should be remem bered that although the word °Polynesia° as a collective name for these islands has been sanctioned by general custom, the title expresses a purely arbitrary division that is founded upon no geographical, national, racial or linguistic basis. Polynesia has never formed a national unit, and the name must be taken only as a convenience to express certain islands and groups of islands in the Pacific which are in habited by people of the same stock and linguistic family, but which do not by any means comprise the entirety of this people within their limits. The following table gives a survey of the size, approximate population and political connections of the three nesian' groups. For
the sake of reference, those islands which be longed to Germany before the World War are still marked thus in the table: These groups of °South Sea Islands° are scattered over a hundred degrees of longitude from New Britain (149° E.) to Easter Island (109° 17' W.) and across 70 degrees of latitude from Hawaii (23° N.) to Stewart Island . at the southern extremity of New Zealand (47° 20' S.). In this vast area of about 11,000,000 square miles of water there is hardly more than 170,000 square miles of land, of which nearly two-thirds falls to the New Zealand Archipelago, lying within the Polynesian group. The total population is perhaps under 2,000,000. Practically all the Pacific islands are now in the possession of Great Britain, France and the United States; until the World War 1914-18 some belonged to Germany. Spain at one time held extensive possessions in the Pacific; the Netherlands own the western half of New Guinea and nearly the whole of Malaysia. The islands of Polynesia proper may all be classi fied as volcanic or coralline, the former having an irregular surface and a higher elevation than the latter, which are low and rarely ele vated above 500 feet. The atoll formation is common. Some of the smaller islands are of value only for their guano deposits. The in digenous fauna is remarkably deficient in ter restrial mammalia, the only kinds at all gen erally distributed being bats. The avifauna is large and interesting and several species of snakes are found in the western islands, while insects and molluscs abound in profusion. The cocoa-palm flourishes throughout all Polynesia and the sago-palm in the west. Bread-fruit, yams and the taro are staple articles of cultiva tion. Some of the islands, chiefly in the west, have an extensive and peculiar flora, but others, especially the more easterly, are poor in species. Though Polynesia lies almost entirely within the tropics, its climate is generally temperate and very salubrious, owing to the influence of the ocean.