THREE POSSIBLE FATES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 95, 17 February 1947, Page 3

THREE POSSIBLE FATES

GENEALOGY OF NATIVE BATTALION The development of the Maori will have—if the last election results are a criterion—a greater effect on New Zealand’s growth as a nation than many people have suspected. In an interesting article on the history of the Polynesian races the Chamber of Commerce Journal says that the Maori race is confronted by three possible fates, and goes on to substantiate this claim. The race may lose faith in its future and die out like the natives of other Pacific Islands. The possi-

bility of this happening.to the Maori

seems now very remote indeed; the Maori actually having higher birth rate and natural increase rate than

the pakeha. The Maori race may effect a satisfactory adjustment to its new environment and go forth with faith in its future, drawing heavily upon the traditions of the past whenever

likely to be helpful to the Maori in his new environment. Meanwhile miscegenation with the pakeha has proceeded so far, and the Maori race seems to have thrown up so few leaders of the right calibre as to make the second an unlikely solution; though the future is not entirely without hopes in this matter. A third (and perhaps the most

likely) solution of the problem can be found along the lines of abandoning the Maori language and traditions and acquiring a pakeha approach to live as quickly as possible. The present tendency towards miscegenation points towards this as being the most likely solution, though it may be delayed several generations in those portions of New Zealand where the Maoris still outnumber the pakeha—Mangonui, Whangaroa, Hokianga, the Bay of Islands counties (in the north), Kawhia county (in the south), and Opotiki, Matakana, Waiapu, Wairoa and Urewera counties (in the east). Although the Maori population increased by 18,356 in the decade between 1926 and 1936, the propor-

tion of full-blooded Maoris decreased from 71.35 per cent, to 37.92 per cent.

There is reason to believe that the proportion of Maoris of solely Maori origin to the total of persons overstated both in 1926 and 1936. It is possible that a more correct proportion in 1936 would be, say, 45 per cent, to 50 per cent., rather than 59,39 per cent, recorded. The extent of miscegenation is usually understated not only in census but in other statistics also.

Genealogy of Soldiers In 1919, for example, a careful I inquiry into the genealogy of 814 men in the Maori Battalion showed that only 52 per cent, were solely of Maori origin. Again, in 1922, an investigation of 4500 native children showed that only 49.9 per cent, were solely of Maoir origin. These cases may not be entirely representative of the race as a whole, but reflection will show that they may be accepted as fairly representative’ at that date. The census records suggest that the extent of miscegenation is increasing at a fairly rapid rate. Dying Out Just as in 1939 the’ last pureblooded Moriori of the Chatham Islands passed away, two centuries hence South Islands in New Zealand will perhaps be recognisable by their lighter complexions (due to the smaller population in the South at the advent of the pakeha) and the pure-blooded Maori will be no more.