INCREASE OF THE MAORIS.

Evening Star, Issue 3128, 27 February 1873, Page 2

INCREASE OF THE MAORIS.

There has been a theory prevailing for some time that the Maori race is dying out, br‘being gradually “ improved” off the face of the earth. We are informed, however, that so far as the northern portion of the Province is concerned, and more especially the Kaipara district, the birth-rate is in excess of mortality, and that the race is not Only holding his own, but gradually increasing. At every settlement the children are numerous. The change is attributed to the improved diet of the children ; kianya kipiro is a thing of the past; every Maori mother, with a few exceptions, has her “feeding-bottle,” and tho picaninies get goat’s milk or that of the cow. The women seem to give a great deal more care to the nursing, and the maternal instincts are better developed. The social habits of the people are becoming greatly improved. Barbarous usages are falliug into disuse, and if they have not been supplanted by stricter observance of karakia, at least the semblance and gloss of civilized habits and customs are filling the void thus made One distinguishing Feature of the present change is the greater consideration shown to the weaker sex by the Maori men. There is no tmer test of increasing growth in civilisation than that. But the truth is the “ inevitable logic of facts,” has driven them to it. After a Maori wahine las at some rural gathering figured in the mazy waltz with an irrepressible gum digger, got up regardless of expense, and has been handed out to the refreshment room and tendered her glass of Icmondacle or cordial, with as much grace and politeness as if she was an Englishwoman, she takes unkindly to the rough and ready ways of the kainya, or Maori pa, and accordingly “ cuts up. ” The dusky swains, not to be outdone, however, are playing the pakehas at theirown game, hence the social improvement we have alluded to. Not only in the Kaipara, but other Northern districts, are there evidences of a change for the better. A settler who travelled through the native settlements lying between Wangarei and Hokianga, informs us that he was quite surprised at the number of Maori children to be seen about, compared with those he had not ced in years gene by. No light-minded man will regret this result. The land is broad enough for both races to flourish and to prosper therein, and the day seems yet far distant when the “ chiefs of the soil” shall be known no more iu the land with which their name and history are inseparably associated.— AT. Z. Herald.