THE MAORI RACE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 110, 30 April 1908, Page 2

THE MAORI RACE.

There is a common impression that tin- Maori ran l is "dying oul"; and laments for tliis decadence of a valiant, people are liy no means uncommon, both within and beyond .Sew Zealand. Sir Hubert Stout, ill the .speech of excellent advice which lie delivered last week lo a Maori assemblage, mentioned the decadence as a fact, and said that the .Maori race today wa h fewer in numbers than when lu. knew it forty years ago. Forty years tak u us beyond the census eiiunicraliuii, and Sir Robert Stout's impression may be correct. But it is emphasise that in more recent years the census gives no warrant for tli ( . belief that the Maoris are diminishing; they even appear to be increasing. It is'true that the Coverninent Statistician considers that "the increase shown by the censuses of Will and Mill.') in the .Maori population can not b,. considered as proved." It is piishible. though not in all cases pnulablc since there is the count of six separate periods, from 1871 to 18!)(i, against the arcmnent —that t ,arly enumerators failed to count evcrv liea.l. Nevertheless, a„ far as the available figures go. the race is adding to its numbers—and in the last ten years apparently with a regular progression. At the census of IH7I- Hie first .Maori census—the Maori numbered 1.->.l7n. In 1878, thev were ■i:t,6!lj; in 1881, ll,!IU3: in 18! Mi. 30,854; in 1001, i:).14:j; ami in I'.iwi, -17,731. The half-caste population has increased from ■IBHS in 18" I to liSlii in l!10li. We do not desire (o press the figures further than thev iibv ju-lly go (says the Web lingloii i-osM. lint iit least'they must cause a sih-pciisjuii of judgment regarding ill:- alleg.'d "death of the race."