MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 July 1940, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES

A DYING RACE. (Recordtcl by J.H.S., o£ Palmerston North, for the “Times-Age.”) Many speculations as to the decrease of the Maoris in this healthy land of plenty are given by scientists and students in various countries. No medical or surgical knowledge, new diseases and new habits, were thought to be the main causes. Other reasons seldom mentioned, if at all. were want of roads or means of transport through dense forests or across vast swamps or rapid rivers, causing isolation for centuries. For some mysterious reason, the birthrate of human beings, like that of animals, is greatly increased by having a large majority of females in each community. Sheep with fifty females to one male give approximately a hundred per cent increase. An Australian genius cleared his run of the rabbit pest by using 100 cage traps from which all males were released. only females being killed, the survivors. male and female, dying out in two seasons. Unfortunately, ridicule killed his crusade, and Australia today suffers from the rabbit pest to a degree never previously" known. In Waikato during 1844. there were 911 Maori males and 788 females. Fourteen years later they numbered 753 males and 616 females.