The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5495, 6 November 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1878.

The oensutt of the Maori people has been completed and laid before the House of Representatives. With tho reports from the respective officers in native districts who have been charged with the duty of collecting the statistics, the return is voluminous, and some time may probably elapse before it can be printed. Under these circumstances a summary of the information contained in tho papers may have interest for our readers. Tho last Maori census was taken in 1874 ; the total number of tho people then given, including half-castos, was 40,016 souls. Of these tho males were 25,050, of whom 8117 were under fifteen years of age. Tho females wore 20,900, of whom 7112 wore under fifteen years of ago. Tho returns for this year, 1878, showed a total native population of 42,819 souls, of whom tho males over fifteen years number 14,553, and tho females 11,802 ; tho males under fifteen years being 0901, and tho females 5745. The docrojvse on tho total of population in four years is 3319, in calculating which tho natives of tie Chatham Islands, now for the first time brought into the census, are excluded. In the schedules it is shown that from frequent migration of the people, or other causes, the native population in the Auckland, Waiuku, Lower Waikato, Taranaki, Wanganui, Opotiki, and East Coast districts show, respectively, an increase of population, tho total of which is 2134 ; but tho _ other twenty districts show more than a corresponding decrease, and the sad result is that in four years tho Maori [people have dim-

iuished in number by 3319 aoulu. The native officers in their reports indicate causes for the reduction in numbers in

their districts, especially in those in the North of this island, which are apparent in the neglect of personal cleanliness, in herding together in wretched hovels which have not now oven the comfort of the old Maori whare, in bad food, insufficient clothing, and last and worst in the growing. habits of intemperance. Measles, whooping cough, and typhoid fever find easy victims amongst people thus prepared, and the mortality from these diseases, more especially amongst the children, is very great. Hero and there, as at Wangarei and at Tauranga, some influential chiefs have joined the Good Templar movement, and by their example and influence have effected much good in arresting the evil of drink ; hut there are other evils beyond the reach ot cure which are, and have long been, steadily doing their work of destruction.

• The natives in what may be called the King Country, from Waikato to Mokau, including Kawhia, Aotea, and Raglan, are returned, upon a careful computation by Major Main, as being 5131 iu number. A very considerable decrease since 1874, amounting to 1420 souls, is shown ; but it is explained that this latter number may not be found to be exact, owing to certain changes made in the boundaries of the district, by which a settlement on the Waipa is excluded.

In the Taranaki Native District, between Mokau' and Waitotara, Major Brown reports the population to be—males over 13 years, 1335 ; females, 1147 ; males under 15 years, 502 ; females, 450 : total, 3440 souls. This is an increase upon tho numbers in 1874, but Major Brown explains that it is only apparent, and due chiefly to an error iu the last return. His personal experience convinces him that his district forms no exception to the general rule, and that there also the decrease in numbers is steady. The one place iu which there has been a natural increase is that indicated by Mr. Alexander Mackay, in the settlement in Queen Charlotte Sound, and that result is attributed, no doubt justly, to the large admixture of European blood amongst the parents. In the other places in Nelson, Marlborough, and Westland the total Maori population is 092, showing a decrease ot 290 iu four years. This, Mr. Mackay says, is in part duo to migration ; but the proportion of children to adults is less than one-third, and in most of the settlements “ the deaths “ double the births, aud in one instance “ quadruples them.” In the Canterbury District the numbers are 534, the decrease being 24. The Rev. Mr. Stack complains of the difficulty of getting complete statistical information, as the natives persist in thinking that tho numbering of the people is somehow meant to injure them. Mr. Deigiiton’s report gives the population of the Chatham Islands as follows : rMules. Females. Boys. Girls. Totals. Maoris ..20 12 la S Morions .. 23 -IS I» O *lO Half castes.. 4 3 5 G - 18

The Morioris of the Chatham Islands are disappearing at a faster rate than the Maoris themselves. The fact that in a population of 49 there were three male children only, and no female child, disposes ot that question. These people, the Morioris, the original possessors of the Chatham.lslands, are said to be of Polynesian origin, like the Maori, but their history is more obscure.. Maoris from the Middle Island, flying iu terror of To llauparaha, invaded their territory, conquered and enslaved them; in forty years they have dwindled down from 500 to 50.

“ Twenty generations back,” said Dr. Thomson, writing iu 1859, “the “ aboriginal settlers were under 1000 “ souls ; in seventeen generations they “multiplied to 400,000, during which “ period cousins married cousins, uncles “nieces, nephews aunts, and other “blood connected kindred. The re- “ suit is that the whole of the present “ generation are closely intermingled ; “ chiefs living widely apart, aud formerly “hostile, can trace without difficulty “ blood - connections with each other, “ while among the lower orders of the “ people the consequences of such unions “ are ‘still more apparent.” The persistent violation of a natural law was thus leading up to the extinction of the race long before the stream of European colonisation was directed to these Islands; we may have helped to accelerate it, and that consideration does no doubt sustain the sentiment of kindness aud forbearance and the desire to help and save them which, in those later years at least, have marked our relations with the Maoris as a people. It may be hoped that there will be no change or need of change in that course with any section of them in the future.