THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1667, 24 June 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1879.

In the present state of Native affairs a few remarks respecting the distribution of the Native population will not bo without interest. Some general ideas on the subject can bo gathered from the census of the Maori population that was made last year, although, of course, with regard to many parts of the country, the enumeration was merely guess work, and, even in those districts whore more might have been expected, groat difficulty was experienced through the unwillingness of the Natives to have there numbers known or through their dislike to what they might consider impertinent curiosity. ' The total population was sot down at 42,819, among whom the males over fifteen wore placed at 15,553. To the north of Auckland, whore the Natives are friendly, the total population is put at 8395. of whom 2840 are males over fifteen. In the Upper Waikato, or what is known as the King Country, the population aro sot down as 3810, of which number 1070 are Ngatimaniapotos. In the country along the West Coast from Manukau to the borders of Taranaki there are 1321 aborigines, 820 being “ Kingitos,” and 501 friendlies. To the N.W. of this district, in tho direction of the Thames the Natives are calculated at 987, while in tho Taranaki district they are put at 3,440, of whom 1,335 are males over 15. It will bo seen from the ahovo that in the districts at piesont actively distributed by the influence of To Whiti and by tho attitude of the Maori King there aro between eight and nine thousand Natives. Deducting from those the known “ friendlies” and also the Ngati maniapotos, who may probably now bo almost reckoned in tho same category, there will bo found to ho between six and seven thousand whoso disposition is doubtful. Taking roughly a third of these as being males over fifteen years of ago, we may place the active male population of tl cio with whom wo may come into collision in the western and western central parts of the North Island at 2,200-

The compounder of a local in last night’s “ Star ” appears to have picked up his ideas of political geography from tho primers in use in infant schools. Those primers are generally about twenty or thirty years behind current events in their information, and their facts are made as uncomplicated as possible, with the view of suiting tho juvenile mind.

Maps aro obtainable along with these primers, constructed on the same system of simplicity. It is evidently from those maps and primers that the “ Star ” culls the wisdom with which it favours its readers. It seems quite unaware of the events which are the topic of common conservation among those who interest themselves in the politics of the old world. If the “ Star ” would only give up studying its primer and juvenile map, and read the “ Times ” and other loading English journals, its mind would bo enlarged and its readers benefited. It would then find that the Khedive had, temporarily at all events, annexed a vast territory quite outside of those districts which are pourtrayod in the said juvenile map in pleasing [and brilliant colors. It is not, of course, to bo supposed that his word is law in the whole of the district, for the territory is vast and the tribes inhabiting it barbarous, and moreover other powers than Egypt find some difficulty in enforcing law in countries or parts of countries nominally belonging to them; but for all that, Egypt is now the dominant power from Darfur to Capo Guardafui, and from the first cataract southward to the Equatorial Lakes, and should it elect to permanently annex its conquest, the “ Star” will in future editions of its juvenile map find the territory so annexed colored in the manner in which its soul delights. As copious correspondence has appeared in the “ Times” and other journals on the subject, and as loading articles have been written on it in the same journals, wo cannot help feeling astonished at the gross ignorance exhibited by the “ Star.” If our contemporary wishes to keep cm fait with current events it really must give up studying its Cornwall, or whatever its elementary geography may happen to bo, and make up its mind to the mental exertion of reading journals containing the latest information.