MORTALITY AMONGST THE MAORIS.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 298, 23 February 1878, Page 4

MORTALITY AMONGST THE MAORIS.

Ti !R 'great- ami steady mortality ••inongs,, tho Maori race, and the fewness of the births to supply tiro place of the iiin.3-i-y Mi&sitlis, Ai-ti ssoeii nowhere so plainly as in tlie number of succession orders -that come before the - Native Li mils Court, Indeed, looking at the proceedings of certain recent sittings of that Court, it would seem as if the issue of hj s • orders was now its chief work. A number of Maoris lease a block of laud, and it is found that amongst perhaps a score of lessons the deaths arc

frequent, and application lias to be made to the Court to decide -who is eiititlecl to receive the share of those who have died. In very few cases have these natives left any direct offspring, and their property has to g’O to distant relatives. Here is another example cf how aboriginal races fade away in the presence of the Anglo-Saxon. What war lias done for the Maoris we knov; but now when peace reigns, when they Jive in their settlements, no man daring to make them afraid, when most of them have incomes, ami all of them have aboundance of fertile land to cultivate, they arc dying off as last as ever. The information at our command does not enable ns to say how it fares with the Kingites, Imt this mortality amongst the natives who live amongst us is sadly great. —Auckland Ilerdld.