DECAY OF THE MAORI RACE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2273, 6 November 1889, Page 2

DECAY OF THE MAORI RACE.

A traveller up the east coast of the provinoo of Auckland writes as follow o on tuU Bubjeot :— " That the Maori taoe is dylpg out there oan bo no doubt possible. Th» only question ia ho y long will it take. Oan significant feature m the deoay m the race ia the deoreaao In the female portion of tbe population. Tbe aohooU show this, to some extent. The boya outnumber the girls by hundreds. In the adult population tbe dinpatlty In numbers between the ■cxci is more marked still. I have had no opportunity for studying otatlsilco of the Maori population, »nd apeak frcix observations onJy, but I think 1 urn within the mark whou I say that In a population of 30000, the females ate fewer than ibe matei by {SOOQ. N.or ia this to be wondered at, when we consider that tho v ohunged conditions of Maori life have been ail m iavtt of prolonging the exiatenoa of the mate. Iv the old war time the tomahawk and the ballet prevented a redundancy of mlei. Nowadays, instead of the youthful Johnny learning how to kill his neighbours or how lo defend his pah ftoui snob, and himself from filling » Maori ovea, ho goes to nobool and is taught geojmpby, geomotry, algebra, elementary phyaloiogy, etc. HavlßJ teoeived t'ae eduoUion of a gentleman) Johnny, if he doetnot join tho Salvation Atmy, returns to hW katnga and his bUnkti/ and takes life hasy, ei>tlDg without grttoe the food the (ode And tbe wAhlne provide for him. To \ha Maori wa>hlne tbe »U«rad oiroam■(•□?oa nave not been productive of »njr t^hftDg^ fop the better. Bhe Is itill tbolctinga. £uG tiai still to SitS 1 ulgnta.aud bob for oele } and wade up to her middle, m all weathers, groping for BhellQih., At seaeans, too, when her aygtom Is weakest, and most susceptible to colds. 80, betyeen ' ' all tho ids that flesh is heir to," and tho bad treatment she receives, the life; of tho wahine is short, but not merry. Th* Mormon elders aeem to have obHorved tho'growiDg'soaroity of women among tue Mttitriß, for thoy do nut teach them tho poljgamoos portion of the dootrine of fog Sftnitb, and Bfiq^am Yonng. As the race "ehrinkb up, tlje attendance t^e eohiQls dwindles down. At tbe present rate 1 of dflotpauo - oves a hundred scholars le^ia 1888 than m 1887— another deoade will suffice to sbut the schools up altotethes, aod another quarter of a million nturling will be ai good »« "chucked m tbe oca." Even If the population wtro tQ remain stattonary, it would taj^e the natira Hoboot *y-otom aWerni goneratjopa'to odootsto tho Mnoila Irito • general qse of "Bogllsh as the is spoke." And if thla (b the one, perhaps it would be advisable to teaoh the Maori (anguaga (n ordinary JJoatd tphools pf the colony ; for, as dhrlatle Marray mys, «« t^orp |s po tie which can bind mej'togotfter niore noorlw ! tb»p laogango,"'anc conversely,' " there ip It nothing than wi'gh more completely divides than the waif: of tongue, 1 ' The mla»lon*ry polity hue been completely saooeßiful la dlvlcllag the aborigine and tbeoolonlst, and the schools will never luoooed In undoing teir work,