success as in Great Britain and France. The ancestors of the white New-Zealanders were the result of the blending in Britain of a number of ethnic waves, commencing with the long-headed cave-dwellers, whose implements have been found in the river-drift of the late glacial epoch, and ending with the last of the Teutonic series in the recent Norman Conquest. The ancestry of the brown New-Zealanders is still exciting inquiry, but we have been assured that Caucasian and Mongoloid blood entered into it in far-off Asia, and that Negroid and Melanesian elements contributed very slightly during the colonization of the Pacific. Another intermixture should not matter much to either side, since each was long ago deprived of any pretensions to purity of race. We have not sufficient data to show completely what has taken place with regard to assimilation, but we respectfully submit a few facts for consideration, with the hope that they may be amplified later. Density of the Maori Population. By its own natural increase the larger European population (1,218,913, as against 52,751 Maori in 1921) is every year rendering the proportion of the Maori population less and less in the total population of the country. The following table shows that the number of Europeans to one Maori has been steadily increasing in spite of the fact that the Maori population has also been increasing:— Table 4.—Ratio of Maori to European. Year. Number of Europeans to One Maori. 1891 14.9 1896 17.6 1901 17.9 1906 18.6 1911 20.2 1916 22.0 1921 23.6 The proportion of 23.6 Europeans to 1 Maori, or 4.2 Maoris for every 100 Europeans, is the ratio for the total population of both Islands. The density of the Maori population in particular districts, however, varies considerably. This is clearly shown in the accompanying map. The population of Maoris and Europeans was taken for each hospital district, and the number of Maoris to 100 Europeans shown for each area. The boundaries may not be quite accurate in every particular, but they serve to convey a general idea. The outstanding feature is that there are two areas of dense population, one in the north and one in the east. In the black area of Hokianga, on the west side of the northern area, there are more Maoris than Europeans. To the north and north-east of it lie Mangonui and Whangaroa, with 71 and 74 respectively to the 100 Europeans. To the east lies the Bay of Islands with 64. Though these-parts have probably always carried a large Maori population owing to the climate suiting the cultivation of the kumara, its present high ratio was further assisted by lesser European settlement. Though containing the oldest European settlements, the area contained so much poor gum-lands unsuitable for closer settlement that European settlers went elsewhere. The Maoris naturally hold the fertile valleys; and except for timber, gum, and trading there was not so much inducement for white occupation. With the opening-up of some of the land, and better travelling facilities,