HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 13, 15 July 1859, Page 1

HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Chap. I. We have often heard, that the Maori race is diminishing. Now we know it as a fact. When we first came into the country, 18 years ago, the number of men, women, and children was reckoned to be 100,000. In the last year the Government has caused a very careful examination to be made in all parts of the country. We are now told that there are only 60,000. Now possibly this is not quite correct. Perhaps the number given was too large at first, and too small now. For it is a most difficult thing to get correct returns of the population of any country. All we know is that if we were to lake the same number of years in England, or in any country of Europe, and look at the tables of increase or decrease, we should not see any such loss as this. Nothing like the frightful decrease of popu-

lation which goes on steadily here in New j Zealand. I i i We ought surely to enquire into the causes of this rapid decay. Whether they arise from changes of dress and habits brought in by the English, or from man's sin, or from man's folly. Also, whether some changes of habits may yet stay the evil. We must ask first, is there any reason why a nation living according to God's laws should die off. On the contrary, the natural law of all nations is growth and increase. God's words to Adam in the beginning were, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. The same words were said afterwards to Noah, to bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. And again, to Abraham, I will make thv seed as the dust of the earth, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand upon the sea shore. The same promises of increase were given again and again to the Israelites. i So sure and settled is this law of God, that in many countries where the climate is bad and food only obtained by hard labour, the inhabitants live and thrive and multiply. This is the case in the cold parts of Russia and Norway. After hundreds of years they are as thick on the ground and as strong as when they settled there. For God has given us healthy bodies which fit themselves to all climates hot and cold. If we take common care of our. bodies, abstain from sin, and provide them with food sufficient for them, and keep them clean, we are a healthy people and multiply. If we have less forethought than the beasts, and neglect our bodies, we shall surely perish. Now we cannot account for the loss of the New Zealanders by war only. There are no great fights now as in old days, no

slaughters as nt Te Totara, at Matakitaki, j and at Te Tumu, when whole pas were destroyed, men, women, and children, and the j whole district wasted. There are still petty; wars going on up and down the land, and J they do great mischief. Some grown men are killed every year, and of course where- j ever there is war there ploughing ceases, j and the people on both siiles are ill-fed, and; tbe pregnant women and the infants, and j the little children all suffer. But this is not the great root of the decrease. Nor is pestilence. In many countries hundreds of all ages are cut off in a few months. Small pox was brought some years ago to the Sandwich Islands, and in one year nearly 5000 people died. So it was in North America about 10 years ago. The small pox destroyed hundreds of Indians in a few months. The finest, largest, tribe among them was cutoff to a man. ' So in India the Cholera will destroy thousands in one sum-j mer. But the only epidemic in New Zealand! for many years has been the measles. This spread through the country about five years ago, and was followed by Dysentery. The disease itself killed very few. Carelesness afterwards, and the use of bad native medicines destroyed a good many, but not enough to reckon in as ene of the causes of this decrease. The root of the matter is the bad food which the women and children get. There are several branches of this evil, but this is the root. And unless the women are belter fed the race must die off. We write to the Chiefs—to fathers of families—to the Native teachers—beseeching them to try to do something to save the Maori race. It is a comfort to see thut the Maori chiefs have plenty of energy when once they take up a subject, and think about it, and talk together about it. Years ago it seemed hopeless to expect that they would grow anything but potatoes and Indian corn. Bui a few men made a beginning; the example spread everywhere, and now the greater part of the wheat grown in the country is grown by the Natives. So, some years ago, drunkenness seemed spreading among the young men ; and we began to fear the New Zealanders would be destroyed, as the Indians in North America have been, by drinking spirits. But the determination of the Chiefs to put down the mischief has prevailed, and the evil is stopped. The same oneness of purpose about the habits which are killing the New Zealanders may yet save them. The root of the matter, as we have said, is the lack of good food for the women and the childreu.

'. ' '' ( 7 """" •'*"'• '•'- * : '- '- * '•• ■■* - . ;.; First, for the women when pregnant. An Englishwoman in such condition is always cared for by her Ifusban'd. If he does not provide better food ; -for her at such limes, we count him a bad man. For she needs double nourishment—for herself, and for the unborn child. An Englishwoman often has to work hard at such times, but she is well fed with wholesome nourishing food ', and her busband will not let her lift heavy weights. If she does so, if ner husband is a selfish drunken man, either she torses her child or her health fails. God has fitted onr bodies, men's and women's, for our several works. The woman has not the muscular strength of the man. She is quite strong enough to wash and bake, and cools, and sew, and to nurse children. But she is not strong enough to carry \OO lbs. of potatoes on her back, or half a ton of firewood, or to do heavy field work, while pregnant. The proof of this being true is that Maori women in general have so few children. Tliev are badly fed and bard worked. And so" they cease to bear, or have none at all. Women who have lived at Mission stations, who have not been allowed to carry heavy weights, and who have had good food, bear seven or eight, or nine children. We know several such. Their children are healthy, and the women themselves look strong and well. But the women in their villages are girls for a year or two, and then old women, «cnveiled and weak. And when we ask if

ibey have any children, ihe answer is, either one or two, or none. The women must be belter fed during the months of pregnancy and be allowed to sit quietly. If the woman is badly fed up to the timn of the child's birth, two evils arise—lst. the child is born small and weakly, and ready for any disease. 2nd. she has no milk for it. She must be fed twice as well as at other times, to ndufish the child before it is born and have nourishment for it afterwards.