Rhesus phenotypes are presented for a total of 2,052 individuals belonging to three sympatric populations of New Caledonia : Kanaks (Melanesians), Wallisians (Polynesians) and Europeans born in New Caledonia. The maximum-likehood gene frequency estimations reveal a significant deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the Kanak and Wallisian samples. As suggested on statistical grounds, this disequilibrium can be attributed to antigen e mistypings, frequently encountered for this system. This hypothesis leads to new estimations of Rhesus haplotype frequencies for the two samples. They reveal a high degree of genetic similarity (89.6%) between Kanaks and Wallisians, with little or no evidence of admixture with Europenas from New Caledonia. The latter are genetically close to southern Europeans in having a very high R1 frequency.