1859 - Fenton, F. D. Observations on the State of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand - [Causes of Population Decline]

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The following statement shows the numbers of adult women named in the foregoing tables in three classes. First, the number of those who have born children or a child still living; second, the number of those who have born children, none of whom survive; and third, the numbers of those who are barren. The numbers of those whose procreative powers are stated to have not yet been tested, are omitted.

TABLE 3.

	Ngati tipa.	Ngati karewa	Ngati kahu, &c.	Ngati tahinga.	Te Ngaungau.	Ngati whauroa.	Ngati koura &c.	Ngati hinetu, &c.	TOTAL.
Number of wives whose issue are living	46	8	22	14	32	15	31	107	221
Do. do. dead	19	2	3	4	10	2	11	38	68
Do. barren	24	5	11	9	15	7	38	75	155
									444

The number of adult women, whose re-productive powers are stated to be not yet ascertained, are omitted from the above list, because, in the first place they would have no effect on the general result; and, in the next place it is very questionable whether there exists amongst the Maori any adult female, who has not been placed in a position to afford opportunity for the operation of her powers of reproduction, those living in schools excepted.

In order to throw some light upon the question of, how far the prolificness of marriages is affected by the consanguinity of the parties, and as to the number of children of each marriage, and the proportion of the children dead to the children living, the following table has been constructed.

The information contained therein is confined to too limited a number of women to claim much attention, the difficulty of arriving at the facts having restricted inquiry. However, as far as it goes, it does not manifest in a very marked manner the effect of consanguinity in the parties; but the large number of children who have died in proportion to those who have survived is sufficiently striking; especially when it is remembered that many of those now alive are still very young, and some of them have the most fatal period of life yet to pass through.

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TABLE 4.

TABLE showing the Names of a Number of Females, taken indiscriminately from the Village of Tihorewaru, with their probable ages, Names of their Husbands, Number of Male and Female Children, dead and alive, the Tribe of the Female and of the Husband, with the degree of consanguinity.

Name of Female.	Name of Husband.	Chil dren alive. Male.	Chil dren alive. Fem ale.	Chil dren dead. Male.	Chil dren dead. Fem ale.	Tribe of Female.	Tribe of Husband.	Relation ship (Consang uinity.)	Prob able age of Woman	Remarks
Haara	Kukutai	1	0	6	0	Ngatitipa	Ngatitipa	First Cousin, once removed	33
Katene	Karaka	2	2	2	1	Do.	Do.	First Cousin	28
Rahera	Remi	1	1	1	1	Do.	Do.	Do.	26
Tiriti	Reweti	0	1	0	1	Do.	Do.	Do.	25
Roka	Pairama	1	2	2	3	Ngatiwhatua	Ngatiwhakaue	None	35
Ramari	Takaroki	1	2	3	0	Te Kawerau	Taranaki	None	35
Ngawai	Whareirohia	3	1	2	1	Te Watuhuhi	Te Watuhuhi	First Cousin	35
Ruhia	Poungongi	3	1	2	3	Ngatikahu	Ngatirare	None	35
Peti	Hurori	1	2	2	2	Ngatitahinga	Ngatitipa	Distant	45
Mere Kateraina	Nui	0	1	0	1	Ngatitipa	Do.	Do.	38	Has four half-castes alive.
Miriama	Epiha	2	0	1	2	Do.	Te Maungaunga	Do.	30
Turia	Ngapaka	0	2	1	0	Ngatimaniapoto	Ngatitipa	None	46
Hariata	Ngarau	3	3	3	3	Ngatiruru	Do.	None	50
		18	18	25	18

Before further investigating the preceding tables, or attempting to draw inferences therefrom, it will be well to allude briefly to the general laws which regulate the increase of decrease of population, as deduced from facts by the authoritative writers on the subject.

Mr. Malthus says, "The great check to the increase of plants and animals we know from experience, is the want of room and nourishment; and this experience should direct us to look for the greatest actual increase of them in those situations where room and nourishment were most abundant. On the same pronciple, we should expect to find the greatest actual increase of population in those situations where, from the abundance of good land, and the manner in which its produce is distributed, the largest portion of the necessaries of life is

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actually awarded to the mass of the society. All animals, according to the known laws by which they are produced, must have a capacity of increasing in a geometrical progression. It may be safely asserted, therefore, that population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical progression of such a nature as to double itself every twenty-five years."

Thus, the white population of the United States, according to an official census made in 1790, was found to be 3,164,148. By a census in 1800 it was found to have increased to 4,312,841. It had increased, then, during the ten years, at a rate equal to 36.3 per cent.-- a rate which, if continued, would double the population in twenty-two years and less than one-half. According to a census in 1810 the white population was found to be 5,862,092, which gives a rate of doubling in about twenty-two and a half years. According to the fourth census in 1820, the white population was found to be 7,801,710, which, compared with the population of 1810, gives an increase at the rate of 34.1 per cent., a rate of progress which, if continued, would double the population in twenty-three years and seven months.

The immigration into the United States during these periods did not reach an average of 10,000 per annum. Our official accounts of the number of emigrants to the United States from Ireland and Great Britain during the ten years from 1812 to 1821 inclusive give an average of less than 7000. The official American accounts tend to confirm this average: and, allowing fully for the emigrants from the other European countries, the general average during the years stated will still he under the 10,000.--(American National Calendar.)

If then the periods of doubling mentioned above are compared with twenty-five years, the difference will be found to be such as fully to cover all the increase of population which would have taken place from immigration.

Reference has been made to the United States for the establishment of the law which would regulate the increase of the human race under the most favourable circumstances, because none of the checks which exist in countries of ancient civilization and circumscribed limits have as yet much force there in resisting the natural tendency of mankind to increase. Moreover, there is a remarkable analogy of physical conditions between the inhabitants of North America and the people of this country. A similar abundance of fertile soil, extreme facility in obtaining the necessities of existence, and a climate of even greater salubrity, place the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand in circumstances of similar advantage for developing to the utmost the powers of rapid increase possessed by the human race generally. It is unnecessary to refer to the checks which operate so powerfully in retarding the quick increase of population in countries where the difficulty of procuring the necessities of life compel prudence, or where the narrow limits of cultivable soil render great advance impossible, as none of these checks can have power to exercise any such retarding influence in New Zealand.

Instead however of finding a rate of increase in the aboriginal population similar to or approaching that of the United States, viz., about 35 per cent, on the average for every ten years during the years mentioned, the foregoing tables show that the population referred to therein, decreased at the rate of 19.42 per cent, in fourteen years, or nearly one-fifth of the total numbers disappeared during that period. The average loss per annum is 1.38, or above 1 1/3 per cent. If we deduct 5.52, the percentage rate of decrease for the uneven four years, from 19.42, the percentage rate of decrease for fourteen years, (a process not strictly correct, for the law of increase being in a geometrical progression, the decrease should be similarly calculated) we have 13.90 the percentage rate of decrease for a period of ten years.

The following table exhibits the percentage increase of population in the countries named, that has occurred in each decennary or other period stated. The figures relating to New Zealand are taken from the statistics of New Zealand compiled by Dr. Bennett and published by the Government in 1858.

TABLE 5.

Remarks.	Country.	Ten Years ending 1811.	Ten Years ending 1821.	Ten Years ending 1831.	Ten Years ending 1841.	The Year 1856.	Average p.c. Increase in 10 years.
	England	14.50	18.05	16.24	14.5		15.82
	Wales	12.97	17.27	12.36	13.		13.9
	Scotland	12.92	15.93	13.	10.8		13.16
	Ireland			14.19			14.19
	United States	36.	34.1	33.5	32.6		34.05
Deducting excess of Immigrants over Emigrants	Auckland Province					23.72	237.2
do.	Wellington do.					11.79	117.9
do.	Nelson do.					6.4	64.
do.	Otago do.					13.14	131.4
Not deducting do.	New Plymouth do.					17.74	177.4
do. do.	Canterbury do.					15.2	152.
	Average of New Zealand
	White Population						146.6
	Colored Population					Decrease	13.9

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The excess of immigration for the Provinces of New Plymouth and Canterbury is not deducted in the above table as the New Zealand Statistics are incomplete in this particular.

The result of this table is to show that the rate of greatest increase in the amount of population, under favourable circumstances, according to the general law deduced by Mr. Malthus, is far exceeded by the wonderful advance of the white population of this country.

It is difficult however to reconcile the statistics quoted with others in the abstract of 1858. For example, the number of births in the Province of Auckland for the year cited (1856) is stated to be 486, and the number of deaths 163, leaving a surplus in favour of increase, of 313. This supply accounts for a very small proportion of the increase to the general population; and as the excess of immigration over emigration for the same year is only 375, we have accounted for only 618, whereas the actual increase in numbers in the year appears to be 3244. It is not evident from what source the large balance unaccounted for, viz., 2546, can have been drawn.

Whether the census of 1855 is defective, or that of 1856 excessive, or whether a much larger amount of the increase is due to an irregular immigration of which no account can be taken, is a question the discussion of which is not within the intention of this paper.

The very high rates of increase stated for the white portion of the population appear in strong contrast with the actual and large decrease which appears to be the condition of the colored portion.

The regular decrease in the rate of increment of population in the United States shows the certain effects of the gradual operation of the checks to multiplication to which a country is subject as it becomes more thickly peopled, and room for expansion therein more restricted.

The following table will afford the means of comparing the proportion between the sexes which exists among the aboriginal inhabitants of this country with that obtaining in other countries whose populations are increasing. The figures relating to Great Britain and Ireland are taken from the Parliamentary Abstract of Population Returns for 1831; those relating to other countries from Mr. Porter's Progress of the Nation; and those relating to the white population of New Zealand from the Abstract of 1858.

TABLE 6.

COUNTRY.	NUMBERS. Males	NUMBERS. Females	CENTESIMAL PARTS. Males	CENTESIMAL PARTS. Females	CENTESIMAL EXCESS. Males	CENTESIMAL EXCESS. Females
England	6,376,627	6,714,378	48.71	51.29		2.58
Wales	394.563	411,619	48.94	51.06		2.12
Scotland	1,114,816	1,250,298	47.14	52.86		5.72
Army, Navy, &c.	277,017
Great Britain (including Army, &c )	8,163,023	8,376,295	49.36	50.64		1.28
Ireland	3,794,850	3,972,521	48.85	51.15		2.3
Guernsey	11,983	14,145	45.86	54.14		8.28
Jersey	17,006	19,576	46.49	53.91		7.02
Man	19,560	21,440	47.71	52.29		4.58
United Kingdom	12,006,452	12,403,977	49.18	50.82		1.64
France			48.94	51.06		2.12
Spain (in 1803)			49.72	50.28		.56
United States (in 1820), free Whites	3,995,053	3,866,657	50.82	49.18	1.64
Auckland (1850)	8,531	6,804	55.64	44.6	11.28
New Plymouth	1,334	1,144	54.19	45.81	8.58
Wellington.	5,781	4,471	56.38	43.62	12.76
Nelson	4,048	3,461	53.91	46.09	7.82
Canterbury	3,552	2,608	57.66	42.34	15.32
Otago	2,100	1,696	5532	44.68	10.64
New Zealand White Population	25,356	20,184	55.51	44.49	11.02
Ditto Colored Population (examined)	753	616	55.	45.	10.
Ditto ditto (Total)	31,667	24,303	56.49	43.51	12.98

On reference to that part of the New Zealand Statistics which shows the emigration and immigration there appears a very large gain to the male portion of the population, relatively to the female portion, resulting from the constant operation of those processes, amply sufficient to account for the irregular disproportion between the sexes which the above table shows to exist among the white portion of the population of New Zealand. The slight disproportion in the United States may also be attributed to the same cause.

It seems therefore to be a natural law that a population in a healthy state, and not influenced by immigration, should possess a slight excess of females. Tested by this rule the colored portion of the population displays a remarkably abnormal condition.

Any accelerated increase of a population must result, (excluding immigration,) either from an increased proportion of births, that is, births calculated with relation to the numbers

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of the people, or to a diminished proportion of deaths, that is, to the more tardy passing away of a generation; and an ordinary increase must result from a regular addition to the population of births more than compensating for the loss sustained by deaths, and conversely.

"The proportionate number of children born cannot be taken (alone) as a test of the condition of the people. It is well known that in climates where the waste of human life is excessive, from the combined causes of disease and poverty affecting the mass of the inhabitants, the number of births is proportionately greater than is experienced in communities more favourably circumstanced. Frequently, indeed, almost always in old settled countries, the proportionate number of births decreases with the advance of civilization, and the more general diffusion of the conveniences and luxuries of life. In fact, the population does not so much increase because many are born, as because few die." (Progress of the Nation.)

We should expect to find, then, that the Maori population would exhibit a greater mortality, and a compensating superabundance of births, relatively to the total number of the people, than are found to obtain in countries of old settlement and more advanced social habits.

Ihe following statement of the annual proportion of births and deaths relatively to the whole population, in the different countries named, will afford a view of the comparative mortality, and reproduction therein. The figures relating to the European countries were communicated by Sir Francis D'Ivernois to Mr. Rickman, the compiler of the Imperial Population Abstract above referred to; those relating to New Spain are taken from Mr. Humboldt's account of that country.

TABLE 7.

England and Wales,	one death in 59	one birth in 34
Sweden and Denmark	48	31 1/2
Holland and Belgium	43	30
France	40	32.4
United States	37	19
Wurtemburg	33	27.1
New Spain	30	17
Auckland (1856)	94.08	31.55
New Plymouth "	77.70	20.39
Wellington "	105.69	25.18
Nelson "	25.15	28.38
Canterbury "	16.22	21.38
Otago "	199.78	24.97
New Zealand--White population	136.44	25.30
Ditto Coloured do.	33.04	67.13

The proportions of the births and deaths among the colored portion of the population of New Zealand are calculated from the tables contained in the previous pages of this memorandum, and will perhaps be thought inapplicable to the circumstances of the people at large. In case a higher value is attached to the information, which, although gained concerning a portion only of the population, is perfectly accurate as far as it goes, it will be well to correct an error which is in reality contained in the above figures, although it is one which with the present information cannot be perfectly removed.

The number of children who have been born and have died between 1844 and 1858 does not appear in the tables, nor can it be certainly ascertained. Judging, however, from the facts as set forth in Table 4, the number who have died cannot be less than a number equal to those who have lived. That this estimate is moderate may be learnt from the following facts. In Saxony one half the children born die under 14 years of age. From Mr. Hickman's tables of 1831 we learn that of 3,938,496 persons buried in England and Wales, dining the 18 years from 1813 to 1830, there died under the age of 14 of every thousand males 483, and of every thousand females 424.

If then the number of children under the age of 14 years alive at any given period be taken at one half of those born, the relative annual number of births among the colored population will be augmented to one in 33.56, and the relative annual number of deaths to one in 22.14; giving a more healthy appearance to the statistics, although displaying a rate of mortality nearly half as much again as that existing in the tropical country of New Spain, with a trifle more than half the births. Compared with the white population of this country the contrast is still more striking; the former showing nearly times the relative number of births, and considerably less than one-sixth the relative number of deaths.

Although it has been previously established as a natural law that at any given time in a population in a normal condition and unaffected by emigration or immigration there will be an excess of females, yet it also appears that the number of males actually born is larger than that of the females.

The following table exhibits the number of registered births in England and Wales, and New Zealand, during the respective years mentioned.

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TABLE 8.

Country.	Year.	Males.	Females.	Excess of Males.
England and Wales	1810	152,591	146,262	6329
Ditto	1815	176,233	168,698	7535
Ditto	1820	176,311	167,349	8962
Ditto	1825	192,003	183,059	8953
Ditto	1830	194,200	187.869	6340
New Zealand	1855	766	694	72
Ditto	1856	904	818	86

Of the population of 3,938,496 mentioned in a previous part of this paper as having been buried in England and Wales during 18 years, 1,996,195 were males, and 1,912,301 females, exhibiting an excess of male deaths and births of 53,894; of this population of 3,938,496 persons, there died under five years of age, males 736,039, females 622,903, or at the rate of 369 males in each thousand, and 321 females in each thousand; showing out of the above total number an excess of deaths of males under five years of age of 113,136; and entirely changing the proportions of the sexes among the survivors, which now appear 1,260,156 males and 1,319,398 females.

The mortality of females is slightly in excess of that of the males, during the period whilst the process of reproduction is going on, that is, from the age of 19 to 49, but is never sufficient to rechange the relative numbers of the sexes, caused by the excessive mortality of males under five years of age; and from the age of 50 upwards, the proportionate number of male deaths is constantly greater than that of female deaths until the female survivors at 100 years of age are to the male survivors exactly as two to one.

The period during which this remarkably superior mortality of male children extends may be further reduced by reference to the tables compiled by Mr. Finlayson, with the view to ascertain the average expectation of life at the various ages for the purposes of life insurance. The relative numbers of the sexes born do not change during the first year of existence. Out of each 1000 male children born 981 are alive at the expiration of one year, and exactly the same number of female children survive out of the same number born; so that the excessive mortality of the males takes place between the ages of one and five years.

The knowledge or experience of the writer with respect to the early habits and characteristics of children does not extend to enable him to offer any suggestions as to the causes of this phenomenon; but the fact is clear that between the ages of one and five years male children are more liable to disease and death than female children.

Hence it will be gathered that the natural law regulating the proportions of the sexes reproduced is, that a larger number of male children should be born than of female children, the actual proportions being 100:97.3, and that from delicacy of constitution, or greater liability to disease during infancy, the mortality of the males should during the last four years of the first lustrum of life exceed that of the females, the actual proportion of deaths being during that period 369 males, 321 females. At 5 years of age the surviving males are to the surviving females as is 100 to 104.7.

The application of this law to the elucidation of the state of the population of the aborigines of this country exhibits an entirely irregular proportion of the sexes as obtaining amongst that people. The number of each sex born it is impossible to ascertain, but the male children born must be far too greatly in excess of the females, for, notwithstanding the higher mortality to which the former sex is liable during infancy, the number of males surviving continues greatly to preponderate over that of the females. Out of an existing population of 1369 persons, 753 are males, and 616 females, and out of a total population of 56,049 persons, (which, however, has undergone less careful enumeration,) 31,667 are males, and 24,303 females.

Referring again to Table No. 2, in order to ascertain the numerical relation which the non-adult population amongst the Maories bears to the adult population, we find:--

TABLE 9.

	POPULATION IN 1844.					POPULATION IN 1858
	Males		Females.			Males.		Females.
	Adult.	Non-Adult.	Adult.	Non-Adult.	TOTAL	Adult.	Non-adult.	Adult.	Non-Adult.	TOTAL.
	630	281	594	194	1699	575	178	474	142	1369
Centesimal Proportions	37.08	16.54	34.96	11.42	100	42.	13.	34.63	10.37	100

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			In 1844.	In 1858.
The non-adult males are to the total adults of both sexes		One in	4.35	5.89
Do. females do. do.		One in	6.3	7.38
The total non-adults of both sexes do.		One in	2.57	3.27

Exhibiting with respect to both sexes an advance of the dilapidation during the 14 years, in the proportion of the non-adult to the adult population, as far as regards the tribes taken for minute investigation. The adult females have nearly maintained their relative numbers, but the change in the proportion of the adult and the non-adult males is very marked. A reference to the population abstract of Great Britain would afford information as to the numerical relation which the persons under 14 years of age should bear to those upwards of 14 in a population in a healthy state, but that paper is not now accessible to the writer. An approximation, however, will be attempted.

Mr. Porter states that, "in the enumeration of 1821, the males under 20 were 3,072,392, upwards of 20:--3,002,200, including all the males whose ages were then ascertained. In the enumeration of 1831, the males known to be under 20 were 3,941,495--upwards of 20, 3,944,511 (the army and navy, &c., are not included)." The number of male persons under 20 years of age, alive at any period, would thus appear to be about equal to that of those who are upwards of 20. An approximation to the relative numbers of the males upwards of 21, and of those under 21 years of age, amongst the Maories, may oe obtained by deducting one half of the number of the survivors of the non-adult males of 1844, and adding them to the non-adult males of 1858. This process affords a considerable advantage, in the calculation, on the side of the non-adults, for the number of children under 7 years of age in any population are more numerous than those between the ages of 7 and 14; and, moreover, the division between the classes is made at 21, instead of at 20. Notwithstanding, however, these advantages in the calculation, the comparison exhibits a great deficiency of non-adults. Of 281 non-adults enumerated in 1844, 105 survive. The non-adult males of 1858 amount to 178. This number, added to one half of the surviving non-adult males of 1844, yields 260.5 an approximation to the number of males under the age of 21 years in the population taken for minute examination. The adult males enumerated in 1858 are 575. Deducting from this number 82.5, i. e.--one-half the number of the surviving non-adult males of 1844, we obtain 492.5 as a similar approximation to the number of males upwards of 21. Thus the comparison, (with the advantages to the non-adults before named,) appears 260.5 non-adults, 492.5 adults, or 1:1.88, instead of 1:1;--exhibiting in a striking manner the extreme relative paucity of youth.

To estimate the prolificness of marriages, or sexual unions amongst the Maories is, from the irregular habits of the people, an impossibility; and it would be very difficult to attain to even an approximation of the average productiveness of each female.

The most commonly actuating motive for the dissolution of marriages or unions is the failure of issue. The desire of children is very great amongst the Maori women. One connexion, however, is no sooner severed than another is formed; indeed, frequently the dissolution is caused by foregone preference for another mate. It may therefore be considered that the knowledge of the prolificness of each female will, for the purposes of these researches, be tantamount to the knowledge of the prolificness of each marriage.

Of the females contained in Table 1, a considerable number were widows in 1844, and past the age when they would be liable to incur the responsibilities of parentage; and several of the persons of both sexes appearing in the "adult" columns are the children of other persons appearing in the same columns. Table 4 was constructed merely for the purpose of ascertaining the numerical relation between the children born and the children surviving, and none but women who have produced issue appear therein. Some knowledge, however, of the productive power of the Maori females may be gained from an examination of Table 3, in which the general result of their procreative efforts is recorded.

M. Muret found that "at Vevay, where the proportion of marriages to births, in the registers, was as 10 to 39, 375 mothers had had 2093 children born alive, by which it appears that each mother had produced 5.55 births." But these," Mr. Muret observes, "were all mothers, which is not the case of all married women. Allowing, however, for the usual proportion of barren wives at Vevay, which was about 20 out of 478, it appears that the married women, one with another, must have had 5.3 births. Yet this was in a town where, he estimates, that the inhabitants do not enter into the marriage state at the time when nature calls them, nor, when married, always have as many children as they might have."--(Enc. Brit. Tit. Population).

The average prolificness of marriages in England and Wales is calculated by Mr. Malthus at 5.26 births.

Although it is impossible, as before observed, from the absence of perfect information, to apply this test of reproductive power to the women of the race under consideration, it will be at once manifest from the Table numbered 1, and the collected statement called Table 2, that

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the average produce of the 500 (about) women who are there enumerated, and who have had the opportunity of reproducing their species, must be greatly below the recognized standard, when the whole population, including themselves, their husbands, and parents (sometimes,) does not amount to 1400, and the number of surviving non-adults of both sexes scarcely exceeds 300. The normal production would amount to about 2,500.

Again, taking the proportion of barren to productive females which appeared at Vevay, according to M. Muret, as an average which may form a rule, and adapting this proportion to the statement, Table 3, we have

Usual average of barren to productive females... 20 in 487, or 1 in 24.35
Maori........................................... 155 in 444, or 1 in 2.86.

Manifesting that the general presence of the procreative power among the Maori females is slightly more than one-ninth of that among females belonging to communities of which the population is increasing. If, to this conclusion is added the fact that of the 444 women who form the subject of this deduction the children of 68 have not survived to the present time, no doubt can exist that the exertion of more than ordinarily prolific powers on the part of the productive 221 cannot suffice to compensate for the want of fecundity, or the deficient energy, of the remaining 223.

Generally imperfect as the statistical knowledge relating to the aboriginal population of this country confessedly is, or, where perfect, embracing such a limited portion of the people, and so inconsiderable an extent of country, as scarcely to afford certain bases whence to draw perfectly reliable influences applicable to the whole race, it is, notwithstanding, suggested that the foregoing calculations are of a character, and the information on which they are grounded are of sufficient value to afford certain evidence that the numbers of the people are diminishing, and must continue to diminish until the causes of the singular characteristics are discovered and removed. Indeed, as the table contained in page 10 et seq. manifest, in every tribe in which a minute investigation has been undertaken, and a comparison instituted between a population existing in 1844 and the remnant of that population in 1858, increased by the births that have been produced thereby during the interval, the results have been the same in character, differing from each other only in the rate of loss. Of the tribes thus experimentally taken as examples some reside on the seashore, others 10 and 20 miles therefrom on the borders of the Waikato river, others again in the inland plains about Lake Waikari, and the fertile banks of the Waipa, and the wheat-producing plateau of Rangiaohia have furnished other instances, all showing a similar result, and all manifesting the existence of the same abnormal conditions. The peculiar characteristics of want of fecundity of the females, extraordinary inequality of the sexes among the non-adult population in a directly inverse order to that obtaining in other countries not influenced by immigration, the extreme mortality among the children, the great paucity of births, together with a rate of mortality of both adults and non-adults far higher than any average known in temperate climates, must tend to produce a conviction in the mind, that so long as so many and such powerful causes antagonistic to increase of population exist, and simultaneously operate, any result except a decrease is impossible. That these peculiarities are not local is proved by the fact that the examplar tribes reside in some cases above 100 miles apart, subsisting mainly on different food, and engaged comparatively in different pursuits. Nor, indeed, is anything more striking in the contemplation of the present aspect of the Maori population than the fact that under varying circumstances, engaged in different employments, in localities of widely different physical character, the manifestations are so generally similar.

The following table exhibits the numbers of the total aboriginal population of the present year, and the numbers to which at the present rate of decrease it will have diminished, in the years mentioned. The calculations are made in periods of 14 years, being, perhaps, a term equal to half the duration of a generation.

TABLE 10.

Year.	Total Population.	Rate of Decrease.	Decrease during the ensuing period.
1858	56,049	19.42 per centum per 14 years	10.884.71
1872	45,164.29	19.42 per centum per 14 years	8,770.9
1886	36,39339	19.42 per centum per 14 years	7,067.59
1900	29,325.8	19.42 per centum per 14 years	5,695.07
1914	23,630.73	19.42 per centum per 14 years	4,589.08
1928	19,041.65	19.42 per centum per 14 years	3.697.88
1942	15,343.77	19.42 per centum per 14 years	2,979.76
1956	12.364.01	19.42 per centum per 14 years

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The subsequent table shows the numbers of the white and colored population respectively of each of the three Provinces of the northern island of New Zealand in the several years mentioned, at the present rates of increase and decrease respectively; the excess of immigration over emigration for the white population being taken at the mean ratio of the years 1854, 1855, and 1850, and the white population for 1858 being ascertained from that of 1856 by adding an accretion for two years at the mean ratio of increase of the same years;the military and their families being excluded.

TABLE 11.

Year.	Province of Auckland.		Province of Taranaki.		Province of Wellington.
	Colored.	White.	Colored.	White.	Colored.	White.
1858	38,269	18,716.48	3,015	2,871.76	11,772	Returns imperfect. Caret--1853.
1872	30,837.17	51,614.12	2,429.49	6,521.69	9,486
1886	24,848.6	141,938.83	1,957.66	14,804.23	7,644
1900	20,023.01	390,331.78	1,577.49	33,605.6	6,159.54

The figures in the above table, as respects the increase of the white population by reproduction have been obtained by calculating the increase in triennial periods, (the duration of time from which the mean ratio is drawn,) on the principles of a geometric progression, that is, a series of numbers increasing by multiplication. Thus each consecutive term of the series is obtained, by the addition to the term immediately preceding, of a number obtained by the multiplication of that preceding term by the fraction representing the mean ratio of increase. For the Province of Auckland this fraction is for the period of three years, 3121/10000 or 31.21 per cent.; for Taranaki, it is 1229/10000 or 12.29 per cent.; and for Wellington ..............

But this process would be manifestly unjust if applied to the increase of population caused by the excess of immigration over emigration. The triennial increment, therefore, derived from this source has been treated as an arithmetical series, and has been included in the calculations by the addition, at each of these periods, of the number which formed the mean ratio of excess of immigration over emigration during the three years taken. When once added to the general population, the increase by the operation of these processes will follow the same rules as the original population of which it now forms part, that is, will be governed, as to its future effect on the numbers, by the principles of geometric progression.

The figures thus resulting, for the white population, will probably be somewhat below what the political economist might expect, in consequence of this adoption of a fixed quantity as the periodical quantum of immigration, for, although the accession to the numbers of the people by the operation of the processes of immigration and emigration, will, relatively to the numbers of the total population, gradually diminish, yet there will probably be for many years to come a small actual increase.

Notwithstanding that the decline of the numbers of the people appears at the present rate of decrease to be very rapid, there is reason to fear that a population which has once reached such a state of decrepitude as that exhibited by the Maori inhabitants of this country will, from causes strictly intrinsic, proceed to its final catastrophe at a greatly accelerated pace, unless, indeed, the causes of decay be ascertained and removed. Moreover, the history of the relations of the white with the colored races in other countries where they have come into contiguity must suggest the apprehension that when the relative numbers of each become such as to banish the necessity for respect and caution in the conduct of the former to the latter, other causes of diminution will begin to operate, the ultimate result of which will be the speedy obliteration of the colored race from the list of peoples.

The causes which have induced this singular retrograde movement in the numbers of the people seem to be of comparatively recent operation. It is 19 years since Bishop Broughton noticed the gradual depopulation of New Zealand, and enquired into its causes; but it is manifest that his lordship's opinion was founded on nothing more trustworthy than mere supposition, and, perhaps, the casual testimony of those most acquainted with the people. The actual numbers of the sexes of the adults in 1844 preponderate in favour of the males, and, it will be observed, that the abnormal proportions had then became more marked, as regards the non-adults. But the adult population of 1844 must have lived in 1830, and the majority of them would have been adult in that year, and have existed, in the prime of life, during the preceding decade. These had passed through the disastrous period of the Ngapuhi wars of Hika; and the immense losses which where then sustained, and which would affect the males in greater proportion than the females, would increase the singularity

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of this condition, did not the large number of female children who were sacrificed during the troublous times of the early part of this century, perhaps, balance the losses which the males sustained by war. That the consumption of human life in these wars was exceedingly great, not relatively to the numbers of the people only, but actually, may be gathered from the fact, that the siege and capture of Matakitaki on the Waipa is believed to have cost 2000 lives. Of these a great majority were males, the females being for the most part kept as prisoners. On the other hand, the custom of infanticide was very extensive, and chiefly affected the females. A mother flying with her friends from the pursuit of the enemy killed her female child because it encumbered her flight, but she usually submitted to the inconvenience rather than destroy the male child which public opinion had decided should be carefully preserved, to augment in future years the strength, and contribute to the security of the community, or to revenge the insults to which his parents had been subjected. This custom not only influenced the numbers of the non-adults of 1844, but had previously operated on the population then adult.

It is, however, at this time, impossible to say whether war most diminished the numbers of the males, or infanticide the number of the females. Although it is possible that the disproportion of the sexes actually born may have commenced at an earlier period than 1830, it is probable that the loss to the males by war was amply compensated by the diminution of the numbers of the females from infanticide. One fact is certain, although the exact period of the commencement of this singular condition of the disproportion of the sexes cannot be demonstratively fixed, it is quite clear that this cause of decrease was in full operation, during the years 1830 to 1844, when the non-adult population of 1844 was being produced, and has continued with great energy up to the present time.

The unfruitfulness of women is likewise a recent characteristic, if the Maories are to be believed when speaking on this subject. And this must be so, otherwise it is impossible to account for the great increase of the population during the twenty generations which the Maories have passed through in this country,--an increase which has taken place notwithstanding the considerable expenditure of life caused by perpetual wars, and in spite of the constant operation of numerous other influences calculated to check the increase of numbers, and shorten the duration of fife. The "rude forefathers of the hamlet" were, according to the universal consent of their existing representatives, blessed with prolific wives, and not seldom with several, all producing simultaneously. Absence of issue from a union was not indeed unknown in former times, but the desire of children was always strong in the breast of the Maori female, and she was usually held in respect according to the number of children with which she had strengthened her tribe.

The ancient remedy for absence of children was wont to be a solitary resort by the unfortunate woman to the mountains, and urgent invocations in a loud voice to those particular immortal gods who were supposed to preside over these matters, a proceeding which, it will scarcely be wondered at, was sometimes followed by the desired result.

Similarly the great mortality of children and the alleged abbreviation of life among adults is affirmed to be of recent commencement. The popular belief is, that in former times the great majority of the children born survived to marry, and the married were all distinguished for unbroken health, and for a physical stature and strength compared with which the attributes of the present generation appear very insignificant indeed. Doubtless these ideas, common more or less to all humanity, may be traced to the same feeling of affectionate regard for bygone days which causes the Englishman still to regret the good days which existed in "merrie England in the olden time;" those "days of cottier cultivation, when, as the poet ignorantly laments, 'every rood of ground maintained its man.'"

The causes of the decrease of the population are adverted to by several of the enumerators and, as appears to be the fate of every affair connected with Maories, the opinions are various and conflicting. As the subject of the causes of the disease is intimately connected with that of the social condition of the people the extracts now made will embrace the remarks of the enumerators on that subject also.

Mr. White: "I regret that I cannot report any very marked improvement in their condition, except in a few instances in farming; but there is a marked decrease of quarrels amongst themselves, on their old prejudices and customs, and a general desire of improvement, which they want the energy to carry out. From my observation, I believe the natives of the North to be more indolent than those of other portions of New Zealand, and also the most peaceful and loyal."

Mr. Kemp, after speaking of "a perceptible increase," as before quoted, says, "The natives attribute this in a great measure to the disuse of mercurial and other strong medicines, which, at the same time, their diet, clothing, and employment have approached more nearly to that of the Europeans. 2ndly. In their general social state, it will be gratifying to the Government to find, that they are in the enjoyment of many European comforts."

Mr. Halse: "For nearly 4 years, they" (the Taranaki natives) "have been engaged in a struggle in asserting their claims to the land, which has always been a subject of contention with them, and the mortality from this cause has been considerable. Not that many natives have fallen, but the harassing nature of the struggle, the misery and privations under-

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gone, from the confinement of fortified pas, all tend to shorten life. To this, is to he added the mortality amongst the children and youth of both sexes. As a rule, medical aid is declined by them, and those who enter the colonial hospital, either go when their diseases are far advanced, or refuse to remain sufficiently long there, to benefit by the treatment and change.

"An increasing taste for spirit drinking is prevalent amongst both sexes, but more particularly with the young, who resort to all kinds of devices to obtain it. The difficulty of checking this by information arises from the aversion of the natives to give evidence. The supplies are understood to be usually obtained through a third party without the knowledge of the landlord, and drinking is likewise indulged in at the native pas."

Rev. C. H. Snackenberg: "The greatest cause of decrease, I believe, is uncleanness inwardly and outwardly, in diet, dress, and habitation, in body and mind, in all their thought words, and actions."

Mr. Fenton: "In my opinion the social condition of the Maories is inferior to what it was five years ago. Their houses are worse, their cultivations more neglected, and their mode of living not improved. The mills in many places have not run for some time, and the poverty of the people generally is extreme.

"At the same time there has appeared a remarkable activity of mind, directed to the development of political ideas, and the establishment of a system of government, which will be productive of good or ill, according to the channel in which it permanently directs itself. Employment of this intellectual energy is now a political necessity, for the Maories are utterly unable, without direction, to found and continue any system which will supply rules of action calculated to make them good citizens, and useful colonists."

Mr. Heaphy enters at length into the question of the decrease of the people, and suggests many causes. His remarks are valuable and suggestive. He says: "The tribes, which I refer to, being those which are in most frequent communication with the largest European settlement in New Zealand, I was particular in examining whether the cause of decrease was connected with the neighbourhood of Europeans.

"The cohabitation of the Maori women with white settlers, and their habits of prostitution in Auckland, must have some effect, undoubtedly, in keeping down the numbers, but it is quite inadequate, as a cause, for the general diminution, which is everywhere apparent. From the proportionate scarcity of women about the Thames, Coromandel, and Waiheke Districts, it became interesting to ascertain whether their paucity of numbers in the native villages, arose from their congregation in Auckland. The returns, however, show that there are at the most, but twenty three women, withdrawn from the native settlements to the town; a number entirely inadequate to account for the scarcity of women and children on the coast.

"Half-caste children being included in the returns, it becomes evident that cohabitation with the whites is net a sufficient cause for the diminution.

"Of diseases introduced amongst aboriginal races, by contact with Europeans, the small pox, syphilis, and measles are those which have most depopulated. But, in New Zealand, the small pox has not appeared; the syphilis assumes, in the natives, so mild a form, and is so easily eradicated, that the writer never heard of a fatal case; and the measles, which have once passed over this province, were not more marked in their effect amongst the natives, than amongst the whites. Dr. McGauran states, that from his long experience in the Colony, and connexion with the hospital, he is convinced that diseases contracted by Maories from Europeans, do not, in the former, assume a violent or dangerous character. The native constitution appears to have the power of throwing off syphilitic disorders, with but slight medical aid, and secondary symptoms are almost unknown. Scrofulous diseases, hereditary in the race, appear, on the other hand, to be of a most fatal character, manifesting itself in a great variety of forms. Pulmonary disease is the chief cause of mortality.

"Of the other causes, intemperance is generally the most fatal amongst the natives of countries colonized, but with the Maories, intoxication, though an increasing, is only an occasional, not an habitual excess, and can have but a very slight share in contributing to the decrease."

The constitutional unproductiveness of the women appears to be the chief cause of the want of numbers. The habits of the women in following laborious pursuits, and especially in carrying heavy loads, not only shortens life, but in a greater degree, abridges that period over which they may become mothers.

European clothing, heaped on the native one day, to be cast aside the next, and replaced by a thin blanket or sheet, must tend to the increase of lung disease.

Abortion, produced by artificial means, appears to be far from uncommon.

While aware of our duty in administering to the well-being of the Maori, and guarding him against those diseases and evils that must tend to depopulate, one cannot overcome the conviction that the race is "run out," and that after two or three generations, a remnant only will represent the people. Has isolation been the cause? I am not aware that the fact of New Zealand being the (populated) island most remote in the world from any other populated country, has attracted the attention of naturalists. May an infusion of fresh blood not be necessary to restore prolificacy? Amongst the island of Melanesia, where communication from group to group is easy, the villages teem with children, and young mothers, with several

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young children hanging about them, are met continually, notwithstanding the effects of disease and the insecurity of perpetual warfare.

Where native women, after an irregular life in Auckland of a year or two, cohabit regularly with a white man, large half-caste families are the result. On the Coromandel coast the children of a few white settlers exceed in number those of the Maori tribe, amongst which they live.

An opinion obtains among the faculty in Europe that the reproductive functions are materially injured by the continual use of tobacco. Be this established or otherwise, there can be no doubt that the constant habit of smoking, in young girls, must be injurious in a high degree, to the Maori population.

Feeding infants, at the time of their weaning, upon decomposing potatoes and Indian corn, and upon heavy and indigestible flourcake, a universal practice among, them, must be very prejudicial."

The difficulty of procuring in adequate plenty the necessaries of life in tolerably peopled countries has two effects. It either indisposes the greater number of people to marry early, and this effect writers on population call the prudential or preventive check; or it disables them from rearing in health the greatest families, and this is named the positive check. How powerful must be the operation of these checks in many of the well-peopled countries may be judged from an example taken from Europe, where judicial authority has been interposed to compel regard to them. "In Bavaria, marriage is not allowed between people without capital, unless with the previous permission of those who manage the poor institutions of the district. Clergymen who marry such people without that permission, are liable for their maintenance, in case of their becoming chargeable. This restriction is assigned as one great cause of th want of any excess of population in Bavaria, and of the general absence of extreme poverty and misery in that country." It is obvious that neither of these checks, whose joint operation is so powerful an obstacle to increase in Europe, and all well-peopled countries, can have any effect in New Zealand as regards the aborigines. Possessing abundance of good land, with ready markets for the disposal of agricultural produce and the purchase of clothing, and other appliances necessary to comfort and health, and easy means of transit to and from the markets, neither of these checks can exercise any retarding influence to the rapid growth of the people. Moreover inhabiting a country whose climate is salubrious beyond a parallel there exist no physicial reasons why the Maories should not exhibit an increase of their numbers at the highest rate of which the human race under the most favorable circumstances is capable.

The theory that the colored race must fade away before the white race can receive little confirmation from the present decay of this population, for the great evil existed, as we have seen, in full force during the decade of years ending 1840, a period antecedent to the colonization of the country, when the whites were insignificant in numbers and sparsely located.

At Rangiaohia, which has for many years been the residence of more Europeans than are or ever have been contained in the whole of the remaining part of the Waikato district, the decrease of the population is 33 per cent below the general average.

Moreover, the theory named has never been satisfactorly established as a law of nature. The idea that the inferior race is ordained by some mysterious but certain natural law to dwindle and fade away in the presence of the race of superior physical endurance and greater intellectual energy, like the low vegetation in the neighbourhood of the baleful upas tree, receives little confirmation from facts. That the red races of North America have gradually receded before the encroaching perseverance of the white race, and have in manv instances entirely disappeared, is not to be held to be the consequence of the simple presence of the latter, but is to be attributed not only to the extermination over extensive districts, of the game which forms the principal article of subsistence to a nation of hunters, but in a greater degree, to the destructive effects of intemperance, European diseases, and exterminating wars-waged not only between the races, but among themselves. In localities where these causes of depopulation have had no or only a partial operation, or where the people have been induced to adopt the habits of civilization, the North American Indians have increased, and show everv sign of a healthv growth and prolonged existence.

According to a statement of the Bishop of Rupert's Land, published in the Church Missionary Intelligencer of March, 1858, the Red River settlement, the principal among those placed far in the wilds of the North Western Regions, contains a population of 6,523 being an increase in 7 years of 1292, or an average annual rate of increase of 1 in 28.43 of the whole population at its present numbers. If this increase could he attributed wholly to reproduction it would exhibit a rate superior to that obtaining in England and Wales, equal to that of Nelson, and nearly equal to the mean annual rate of the whole of the white population of New Zealand. But, either a large proportion of this increase must be due to the immigration of the wandering tribes who would gradually cluster around the locality where order reigned and where the necessities of life existed in greatest abundance, or a great proportion of the people must still be heathen, for during a period of 15 years the registered baptisms amounted only to 545, while the registered burials were 308. This, however, shows an excess of births-over deaths in the proportion of one death to 1.77, or slightly more than 1 3/4, births. 1900

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half-castes are included in the above population, one of whom is the chief Magistrate of the village.

It seems, then, that the simple contiguity of the white race cannot be alleged as a cause of the decrease of the people. It is true that the evil conditions have increased in the population under consideration generally during the last period of 14 years, but the causes existed, as we have seen, previously to 1840, and an augmented energy in their action must be attributed to the ordinary operation of the principle of geometric progression which governs population rather than to the existence of a new element which could have as little effect in increasing, as it had in originating these causes. That the evil has increased may be seen by a comparison of the relative numbers of the adults, and non-adults, in 1844 and 1858 respectively. In 1844, the total population examined amounted to 1699, of whom 475 were non-adult, giving a proportion of 1 non-adult to 2.57 adults. In 1858 the total population is 1369, of whom 320 are non-adult, showing a proportion of 1 non-adult to every 3.27 adults. On the other hand, the relation of the sexes of the non-adults in the latter year is slightly improved, as compared to the relation which they had to each other in 1844. Centesimal proportions of the sexes of the non-adult population:--

	Males.	Females.	Total.
In 1844	59.15	40.85	100
In 1858	55.63	44.37	100

Nor can the number of females abstracted from the Maori population to form unions with males of the white race be assigned as a cause of the decrease. The total amount thus taken is quite insignificant compared with the total number of the females. Thus we find that in the town of Auckland 23 women only are thus absorbed, some of whom are half-castes. Out of the population contained in Table 1, containing in 1844, 788 females, and in 1858, 616 females, 8 have been abstracted, of whom 2 re-appear amongst the 23 resident in Auckland.

Moreover, with reference to this particular interference, compensation is to a great extent afforded by the half-caste females who return to the people of their mothers, and form alliances which produce offspring more than sufficient to replace the loss originally sustained.

The theory of M. Strzelecki, that a colored female having had sexual intercourse with a white is thenceforth incapable of propagating her own race is quite false as regards the colored race under consideration. Several instances appear in Table 1, in which females have had children by males of both races, and, as a rule, the production by the Maori husband has been subsequent to the birth of children by the European husband. Instances even are not unfrequent of women, who, having for years indulged in the towns in that irregular and mercenary intercourse which is supposed to be utterly destructive of the powers of reproduction, have returned to their native valleys, and given proof that their procreative functions have not suffered material injury. Doubtless, the Maori population to a certain extent suffers by the necessity which seems to have been imposed by usage upon them, of yielding the supply of females who are to minister to the irregular appetites of the town populations; but the numbers affected by this drain are so small, being only 23 for Auckland the largest of the European settlements, that a sensible check to population can scarcely be attributed to this cause even if the future fecundity of these females were utterly destroyed, which is not the case.

If we seek amongst the diseases introduced by the whites for the cause of decrease which has operated for so many years back, we shall be equally dissatisfied with any or all of these checks to population, as an explanation of the phenomenon. Dr. Thompson of H. M. 58th Regiment, an indefatigable enquirer into the physical characteristics and condition of the aboriginal race and whose opportunities of observation cause much value to attach to his opinion, has instituted researches into this branch of our subject, and has recorded much important information to which reference may be had.

Any remarks which might be made on this subject can have little force from any other than a professional man. The statement of Mr. Heaphy and the opinion of Dr. McGauran, quoted supra, entirely agree with the observation of the writer, with the exception that the effects of the measles which swept through the country in 1853 appear to be much underrated, and that the supposition of the existence of the practice of causing abortion by artificial means is quite incorrect. Neither this crime, nor the cognate one of infanticide, is more general among the Maories, or has been for many years, than amongst the Europeans; on the contrary, the desire for living offspring is very great.

The small pox which was so terrible a scourge to the nations of Europe before the discovery of vaccination and which nearly destroyed many of the hunting tribes of North America, has not made its appearance in New Zealand, nor has any other European disease

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produced any effects more marked than those which usually attend the visitation of certain epidemics in Europe.

Nor, indeed is it among the causes of mortality of the adults that the reason for the decrease of the population is to be sought, so much as in the want of fecundity of the females and the extreme unhealthiness of the children actually born. As has been previously shown the average number of deaths in relation to the total population, although very high, is not so remarkable as the relative paucity of surviving births. Thus, taking the annual mortality in New Spain at 1 in 30, and the annual additions to the population at 1 in 17, the mortality of the New Zealanders, 1 in 22 1/4, does not present so striking a contrast as the dificiency of births, only 1 in 33 1/2.It is true that the early deaths and early marriages of a tropical climate, and the consequent rapid passing away of each generation, scarcely render New Spain a case for instituting a comparison; but, as the population of that country was, according to M. Humboldt, increasing at the time he made his observations at a rate to double itself in 29 years, a rate of progress very remarkable in a country already tolerably well peopled, there is abundant margin left for allowances of every description. Amongst the Maoris also, unions between the sexes commence at a very early period, and, although the average duration of life is unknown or the average expectation of life at any period of it, the great number of men still living who can speak of and describe events that happened thirty years ago, in which they moved and took part as the mature adults of that day, must lead us to suppose that the Maori enjoys in common with the European the advantage which a temperate climate possesses over a tropical one in the prolongation of human life when unchecked by more powerful antagonistic influences.

The remarks of Mr. Heaphy leave little unsaid on the subject of intemperance. The use of spirituous liquors may have exercised some influence prejudicial to the increase of the people, especially amongst women in a state of pregnancy, but this is not known to be the case. In the great district of the Waikato and its tributaries, whence the information forming the basis of the preceding calculations has been derived, the quantity of spirits consumed has been small, and has not produced the slightest effect, either on the increase or the habits of the people. In fact, a reference to Table 2 will show that while the total adult male population has decreased at a rate of 17.34 per cent, and in some cases at rates above 30 per cent, the particular adult male population of Rangiaohia has suffered a diminution of only 2.34 per cent. Yet more spirits have been consumed in that village than in the whole of Waikato put together. I am informed by Mr. Carleton, the member of the House of Representatives for the Bay of Islands, that the consumption of spirits in that district which was at one time very great has materially diminished during the last two years, although the same facilities for obtaining spirits exist as heretofore. The fact is that the use of spirits has had no effect upon the numbers of the people. The spirit drinker is the exception, and the opportunities of procuring the stimulant in quantities sufficient to operate injuriously on the whole race, do not exist.

The opinion which the faculty entertain as to the material injury which the reproductive functions suffer from the continued use of tobacco must be entitled to respect, but it is somewhat remarkable that the aboriginal race of New Zealand should be held to be the only one that exhibits on an extensive scale clear proofs of the theory. The Maori women cohabiting with Europeans consume more tobacco than those remaining in the native settlements, simply because they can procure more, yet their production of children is increased in a similar ratio. Families of 6, 9, and even 13 half-caste children are met with forming living evidence of the fallacy of this doctrine, at least as applicable to this country.

It appears then that it cannot be directly proved that the causes of the decrease of the Maori race arise from the contiguity of the Europeans, nor from any diseases introduced by, or habits contracted from them.

Still, many facts appear on record which tend to show that by some mysterious law of nature the intercourse of persons may cause disease, even where both parties are in perfect health, more especially in cases where the parties are of entirely distinct race.

The following observations, extracted from Darwin's Naturalist's Voyage (Beagle), will elucidate my meaning:--

"The Rev. J. Williams, in his interesting work, Narrative of Missionary Enterprise, says, 'The first intercourse between natives and Europeans, is invariably attended with the introduction of fever, dysentery, or some other disease, which carries off numbers of the people.' Again he affirms 'It is certainly a fact, which cannot be controverted, that most of the diseases which have raged in the islands during my residence there, have been introduced by ships; and what renders the fact remarkable is, that there might be no appearance of disease among the crew of the ship which conveyed this destructive importation.'

"This statement is not so extraordinary as it at first appears, for several cases are recorded of the most malignant fevers having broken out, although the parties themselves who were the causes, were not affected. In the early part of the reign of George III, a prisoner who had been confined in a dungeon, was taken in a coach with four constables

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before a Magistrate, and although the man himself was not ill, the four constables died from a short putrid fever, but the contagion extended to no others. From these facts it would almost appear that the effluvium of one set of men shut up for some time together was poisonous when inhaled by others, and possibly more so if the men be of different races.

"Captain Beechey (ch. 4, vol. 1,) states that the inhabitants of Pitcairn's Island are firmly convinced that after the arrival of every ship, they suffer from cutaneous and other disorders. He attributes this to the change of diet during the time of the visit Dr. McCulloch (Western Isles, vol. 2, p. 32) says, it is asserted that on the arrival of a stranger, (at St. Kilda) all the inhabitants, in the common phraseology, catch a cold. In Vancouver's voyage, there is a somewhat similar statement with regard to Otaheiti. Dr. Dieffenbach states that the same fact is universally believed by the inhabitants of the Chatham Islands, and in part of New Zealand. It is impossible that such a belief should have become universal in the northern hemisphere, at the Antipodes, and in the Pacific, without some good foundation."--(Naturalist's voyage, p. 430.) Original note to the above.

Captain Beechey's statement about Pitcairn's Island is corroborated by a gentleman of my acquaintance, who, with four others, passed three weeks there in the year 1850 He received letters from the island shortly after his departure stating that the people had suffered severely from influenza. But there had been no change of diet during the time of the visit.

The celebrated traveller, Dr. Livingstone, makes a similar observation. He says, "The Boers, under Potgeiter, visited Delgoa Bay for the first time about ten years ago, in order to secure a port on the East Coast for their Republic. They had come from a part of the interior, where the disease called croup occasionally prevails. There was no appearance of disease amongst them at the period of their visit, but the Portuguese inhabitants of that Bay found that they had left it among them, and several adults were cut off by a form of the complaint called Laryngismus stridulus, the disease of which the great Washington died. Similar cases have occurred in the South Sea Islands. Ships have left diseases, from which no one on board was suffering at the time of their visit."--(Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, by David Livingstone, L.L.D., D.C.L., p. 649, Ed. 1857.)

The Maories themselves attribute their decadence, in some measure, to the introduction of new food and clothing, and the attendant change of habits. They affirm that in former times when their custom was to walk abroad with little clothing, and to pursue their ordinary occupations in a state of almost nudity, their skins thickened and became insensible to the effects of cold or heat, and moreover, that in those happy days, when fernroot and the root of the wild convolvulus formed the staple of their diet, their physicial strength and endurance was great, their health unbroken, and their appetites much more worthy of notice than at present. This latter manifestation, though difficult of belief, may be true, and, in fact, the direct consequence of their insufficient clothing and the greater degree of cold to which they were subjected. Baron Liebig, in his Animal Chemistry, says, "Our clothing is in reference to the temperature of the body, merely an equivalent for a certain amount of food. The more warmly we are clad, the less urgent, up to a certain point, becomes the appetite for food, because the loss of heat by cooling, and consequently the amount of heat to be supplied by the food is diminished.

"If we were to go naked like certain savage tribes, or if, in hunting and fishing we were exposed to the same degree of cold as the Samoyedes, we should be able with ease to consume 10 lbs. of fish or flesh, and perhaps a dozen of tallow candles into the bargain, daily, as warmly clad travellers have related with astonishment of these people."

The Maoris subsist mainly on a vegetable diet, and it has been alleged that this fact will, to some extent, explain the deficiency of vigour which appears to exist in the reproductive powers of the race. Resorting again to comparisons with other countries to ascertain the amount of respect to which this idea is entitled, we find in the life of Francis Xavier, "The Japanese, like all other people who believe in the metampsychosis, live on vegetable food."

We learn from returns transmitted by English consuls in consequence of enquiries made through Lord Palmerston by the Poor Law Commissioners the following facts relating to some of the principal countries of Europe:--In Norway, "the poor consume very simple food; salt herrings, oatmeal porridge, potatoes, and coarse oatmeal bread, forming the principal part of their diet: once or twice a week, they may obtain a piece of bacon or salt meat, and those who live on the coast, or near to rivers or lakes, procure fresh fish."

In Sweden, "agriculturists in the southern provinces live upon salt fish and potatoes, in the northern provinces porridge and ryebread form their food. Artisans are sometimes able to procure a little meat."

In Denmark, "the principal food of the labouring people is ryebread, groats, potatoes, coffee, butter, cheese, and milk."

In Mecklenburg, "with these advantages they are able to procure a sufficient quantity of good sound food, and occasionally to indulge in the use of meat, which falls to the lot of the working classes in very few of the countries on the continent of Europe."

In France, "the food varies in different districts. Throughout the district called Landes the food consists in ryebread, soup made of millet, cakes made of Indian corn, now and then some salt provisions and vegetables, rarely if ever, butchers' meat. In other parts, they eat wheaten bread, soup made with vegetables and a little lard or grease, twice a day, potatoes and other vegetables, but seldom butchers' meat."

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In England, in answer to the question, "Could a labourer, his wife, and four children subsist on the aggregate earnings of the father, mother, and children, and if so, on what food?" 491 parishes replied "with meat," and 125 parishes, "barely or without meat."

In Ireland, the food of the labouring classes consists mainly of potatoes and milk, according to Carlton and other popular writers on that country.

That a vegetable diet is sufficient to maintain man not only in perfect health but in a condition to undergo the utmost amount of fatigue and hardship, may be learned from the fact that, during the stupendous exertions made by the Arabians during their wonderful career of conquest under Mahomet aud his successors, their ordinary diet did not include animal food. "They knew nothing of the luxuries of the pampered Greeks, and were prohibited the use of wine. Their drink was water, their food principally milk, rice, and the fruits of the earth, and their dress the coarse garments of the desert."--(Irving's Successors of Mahomet.)

It is needless to search for further facts among the dense populations of Asia, to prove that the human species may exist in perfect health, and multiply, whilst subsisting on a diet of which animal food forms but a small part. And it is equally difficult to conceive that a change from comparative nakedness to a state of comfort, as regards clothing, not far, if at all, inferior to that obtaining among the labouring classes of Europe, can have exercised a prejudical effect on the general health of the people.

In fine, the fact that a retrograde movement in the numbers of the people had fully commenced, and had produced very sensible effects before these supposed causes of decrease came into operation, must form an insuperable obstacle to the logical maintenance of the position, that the decrease is attributable to the lack of animal food, or to the adoption of European clothing.

If we search for the causes of the decrease of the people amongst habits which are purely internal, next in order after the depopulating intestine wars, we should probably place the frequent custom of infanticide. That this custom was a very important obstacle to the proper increase of the Maori race may be believed from the fact that the writer has met with instances of women who have destroyed four, six, and even seven children, offspring of themselves, and mostly females. However, the universal testimony of those best qualified to judge, is conclusive that this custom has for many years been almost extinct. Probably the year 1835 may be named as the period of its ceasing to exist. Rare instances have occurred since that date, but utterly insufficient in number to have any serious effect on the state of the population.

At a somewhat later period large wars also terminated; the expeditions of the Waikato tribes against Taranaki in 1836 and 1837, and the struggle of the same great sept with Ngatiwhakaue, commencing in the year 1835 and ending in 1839, being the last undertakings of any importance. The seige and capture of Kaipaka near Rangiaohia by the chief William Naylor Te Awaitaia and his confederate tribes had proceeded these operations. The battle of Te Ihutaroa to which reference has been previously made and in which the Ngatitipa contested the ownership of about 20 acres of land with Ngatipou, occurred in 1846, and occasioned the death of 33 individuals some of whom appear in the previous Tables; but peace immediately ensued, and the effects of the contest did not extend beyond those who died on the field. The numerous petty wars which, during the past two or three years, have caused some loss to the coast tribes on both sides of the northern island, have had no effect on the people of Waikato who have been peculiarly the object of this enquiry.

Illicit commerce between the sexes, although considerable at the present time, was much more extensive in former periods. The Maoris are unanimous in representing sexual intercourse as extremely promiscuous during the times when several families inhabited one large house. Captain Cook remarked the prevalence of this vice:--"Amongst the females, chastity is lightly esteemed." And whatever alteration the habits of the people have lately undergone respecting this particular habit has been for the better. Therefore, to whatever degree the fecundity of females may be affected by practices of this nature, the question of the present decline of numbers cannot be solved by adducing as a cause a habit which was more general during periods when the race was increasing.

The want of cleanliness in the extended sense in which the word is used by Mr. Schnackenberg, though by itself insufficient to account for the extraordinary mortality to which the New Zealanders have lately become subject, will, joined to the other habits which characterize a low state of civilization have considerable effect in shortening the duration of human life. The gradual prolongation of life in England as the manners and condition of the people have improved is very remarkable. The estimated proportion of deaths in the course of the 18th century, were:--

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In the ten years ending	1700	one in 39 4/5
"	1710	" 36 1/10
"	1720	" 35 1/2
"	1730	" 31 1/10
"	1740	" 35 1/5
"	1750	" 40 2/5
"	1760	" 41 4/5
"	1770	" 41 1/5
"	1780	" 411/2
In the five years ending	1785	" 41 3/4
"	1790	" 45 1/5
"	1795	" 47 1/5
"	1800	" 47 3/4
And for the ten years preceding	1811	" 53 3/4
	1821	" 60 1/2
	1831	" 58 1/2

Showing a continually decreasing mortality. "This effect," says Mr. Porter, "so strongly indicative of amendment in the condition of the people, must be attributed to the concurrence of various causes, among these may be mentioned the less crowded state of our dwellings, the command of better kinds of food and medical attendance, the superiority and cheapness of clothing, and probably, also more temperate habits and greater personal cleanliness. One influential cause of the diminished rate of mortality will be found in the introduction of vaccination which has had so powerful an effect in reducing the rate of mortality among children, besides which the extensive drainage which has been going forward in that part of the country, which, owing to the presence of stagnant waters, was once productive of intermittent fevers, has added to the general healthiness of the country."

Similarly, Rangiaohia presents to our notice a decrease of 13.10 per cent on its total population as compared with 19.42, the per centage loss sustained by the total population of the district over which these enquiries have extended, and that place has been noted as the earliest in commencing the cultivation of wheat, and adopting, as far as they have been adopted, European clothing and habits.

But it does not apear that the improvements of civilization have a similar effect upon the number of births, at least in old and well peopled countries. Thus in England:--

For the ten years preceding 1811 the births were one in 31 1/3
" the deaths " 53 3/4
" 1821 the births " 31 3/4
" " the deaths " 60 1/2
" 1831 the births " 34 1/2
" " the deaths " 58 1/2

"Thus the number of births have decreased and is still decreasing in proportion to the amount of population in England." It would seem however that this diminution of the number of births is the effect of the checks before alluded to which operate very powerfully in England, and that this symptom should not appear in this country where these checks can have no obstructing influence whatever. In thinly peopled but fertile countries, as in all newly settled states, a great proportion of births should be looked for as a natural manifestation.

Hence, notwithstanding the presence of injurious habits, and a low state of civilization, we should expect to find among the population under consideration, large annual additions to the numbers more than sufficient to replace the loss caused by a greater rate of mortality than would characterize a people of improved habits. "Circumstances," says Mr. Porter, "which have increased the rate of mortality, have always tended to increase, likewise the number of births. In Ireland, population increases almost as fast as in England, and mortality diminishes in its rate, yet the people improve but little in condition."

It would be difficult at once to perceive any reason why the Maori population should not increase at a rate at least equal to that of the labouring classes of Ireland. The food of the two people is similar, with the exception that the Irish peasant obtains milk and does not eat putrid food. The climates are similarly salubrious, the soils equally fertile, and the state of cleanliness, both as regards person, clothing, and habitations, affords, ,according to Carlton and other writers who have depicted Irish peasant life, no striking point of difference.

Moreover, the pursuits of the great bulk of the Irish people resemble those of the New Zealanders, that is, are connected with the cultivation of the soil. "Out of a population consisting of 1,385,066 families, Ireland employs in the pursuit of agriculture the labour of 884,339 families, being at the rate of 638 in each 1000, or nearly two-thirds of the inhabitants. In Ireland the system of parcelling out the land to numerous cottiers, whose scanty means do not enable them to grow more than suffices for their own consumption, while the stipulated rent is frequently paid by labour and not in money, prevails to an extent which renders it one of the most fruitful sources of misery to that country. Out of 106,608 males, twenty years old, occupying land in Ireland in 1831, more than three fourths (87,819) came under the class just described. Yet the population, which in 1821, was 6,801,827 had increased to

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7,767,401 in 1831, showing an advance nearly as great as that of England, and greater than that of Scotland and Wales."--(Porter's Progress of the Nation.)

It would thus appear that a low social condition does not necessarily prevent the growth of the numbers of the people at a rate equal to, or even greater than, that obtaining in countries of more advanced habits or greater modicum of comfort.

If further proof is needed, an extreme case may be found in the slave states of North America, where labour is extremely severe and misery of every description most abundant.

The following statement will show the progress of the numbers of the colored inhabitants of the three principal slaveholding states during the decennial periods mentioned:--

	1820.	1830.	1840.
North Carolina	296,017	215,601	245,817
South "	258,475	315,401	327,038
Georgia	149,656	217,531	280,944

It would appear then that the simple reason alleged by Mr. Snackenberg for the diminution of the numbers of the people, although sufficient when acting simultaneously with other habits of a similar character appertaining to a low social condition, to shorten the average expectation of life at the time of birth, yet does not extend to prevent the compensating increased number of births. In fact the effect of the action of these conditions appears to be simply to abbreviate the duration of life without interfering with the increased number of births, which, as in the case of New Spain, seems to accompany a greater mortality, or in other words to cause the more speedy disappearance of a generation, but not to affect the maintenance and due advancement of the numbers of the people.

The proposition of Mr. Snackenberg taken in its extended sense as applying to a generally low social and moral condition appears to apply with greater force to the non-adult than to the adult members of the population. That the mortality among the youth of both sexes under the age of 14 is very great, not only relatively to the total population, but actually, a reference to Tables 1 and 2 clearly manifests. Out of a total number of persons of both sexes under 14 years of age in 1844 of 475 only 283 have survived to the present time, exhibiting a loss of upwards of 40 per cent. And if it is considered that to supply these 475 a number of births must have taken place of which, judging from Table 4 and the previous enquiries on this subject, one half died before the enumeration, leaving 475 as the survivors, the loss to the non-adult population appears astonishing, amounting to above 70 per cent. Of 15 children, 8 male and 7 female, who, at the taking of the census in 1844 were infants unnamed and who appear in the statements called Table 1 as "pepe" or "infant," only 2 now remain alive, 1 male and 1 female.

There can be little doubt that unwholesome food and insufficient clothing must be much more prejudicial in their effects on the young than on those who, besides possessing the greater vitality of manhood, have proved the strength of their constitutions by living through these hardships. The great amelioration which care and attention affect in the health of the young may be gathered from a table compiled by Dr. Mitchell with reference to the children in Christ's Hospital, and quoted by Mr. Porter in his work so often referred to. It will be seen from the return annexed how exceedingly small the rate of mortality has been in that establishment throughout the period referred to, viz. from 1813 to 1833. "This circumstance shows how very instrumental in preserving life during the years of childhood, are substantial clothing, an abundance of wholesome food, good lodging, healthful exercise in the hours allowed for recreation, and immediate attention on the first appearance of sickness under the care of skilful medical men."

Period.	Average number of children.	Deaths
1814 to 1818	1026	51
1819 to 1823	1038.6	44
1824 to 1828	1082.4	40
1829 to 1833	1134	86

It thus appears that in the first five years, viz. from 1814 to 1818, the annual mortality was 1 in 100, that in the next five years from 1819 to 1823 the rate was only 1 in 118, that in the five years from 1824 to 1828 it was further diminished to 1 in 135, and that in the last quinquennial period the annual mortality was no greater than 1 in 157 1/2 of the children.

The average annual number of children in the establishment during the last three periods, embracing a duration of time of 15 years, was 1085, and the average annual number of deaths was 8, exhibiting an average annual mortality of 1 in 135 1/2, or 1 in 9 1-30th for the whole period of 15 years.

Among the 475 maori children who appear in the census of 1844 192 deaths have taken place during a period of 14 years, or, the mortality has been at the rate of 1 in 2 1/2 for the whole period; or 1 in 34 2-3rd annually. An error will be apparent in this comparison, for every year as it passed by would add a certain number of these 475 children to the class of of adults or persons about 14 years of age, and all the survivors are now upwards of 14. This error, however, operates in favour of the health of the Maoris in the comparison, for the ordinary mortality is much greater among persons under the age of 14 years, than among the class between 14 and 28. According to the tables compiled by Mr. Finlayson for the purpose of ascertaining rates of life insurance, it appears that out of 10,000 persons of both sexes born

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in Carlisle 3665 died under the age of 14 years, while, of the remaining 6335 persons only 587 died between the ages of 14 and 28.

The average annual number of children in the school conducted by the Rev. J. Morgan, at Otawhao, near Rangiaohia, during the period extending from 1849 to 1858 has been 54, deducting those who did not remain 6 months in the establishment. The total number of deaths that have occurred among these children, including those who returned to the native settlement on the approach of death, as the custom is, have been 4 maoris and 2 calf-castes; total 6. Thus the mortality in this establishment during the whole period of its existence has been 1 in 9, or an average annual mortality of 1 in 81.

The average rates of annual mortality among these three classes of non-adults will thus appear contrasted:--

In Christ's Hospital............... one death annually in 135 1/2
In the Otawhao School......... " 81
In the Native Villages............ " 34 2/3

These facts tend to show how greatly the expectation of life may be increased during the years of childhood by good lodging and abundance of wholesome food, combined with a rational mode of discipline both moral and medical. And this great improvement as regards the health of the children in the Otawhao establishment has been obtained, notwithstanding the extreme scantiness of their clothing which, especially during the winter when the thermometer during the night frequently registers 27 deg. and even 25 deg. Fahrenheit, is utterly inadequate to retain the proper amount of animal heat. The only peculiarity of the food consumed by these children is that the staple is wheat and wheaten flour instead of potatoes, and at all seasons of the year abundance of milk is supplied to them.

Had the rate of mortality which forms the rule in Mr. Morgan's school obtained amongst the children in the native settlements during the last 14 years, the deaths between 1844 and 1858 would have been 82 instead of 192. The effect which such a beneficial change in the health of the young must have upon the movement of the entire population is too apparent to need remark.

It will appear then that, with the exception of the debased social habits which usually attend a low condition of civilization, the previous enquiries have failed to discover any causes whose operations have been sufficiently influential to account for the extraordinary symptoms which have characterized the aboriginal people of this country from a period commencing about the year 1830. The causes of decrease usually assigned have been successfully investigated, and have failed to afford any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon.

The suggestions which follow are tendered with much hesitation and will be made with great brevity, not indeed with the desire that they may be accepted as a conclusive determination of the enquiry, but rather with the hope that some member of the medical profession may be induced with the aid of the foregoing facts and figures, to examine into the whole question for the proper solution of which that peculiar knowledge is necessary which the faculty alone possesses.

A doctrine has been asserted and has found favor with some, that as nations rise and fall, and populations increase and decrease at the will of the Divine Providence, peculiar facts such as those which form the subject of this enquiry may be simply attributed to the exercise of such a Divine decree. It is, however, a characteristic of the plan of management under which the affairs of the world are administered, that the will of Providence is always carried into effect by ordinary means, and the most extraordinary results may be traced to the operation of simple natural causes. The laws which govern the reproduction of the human species are, it must be admitted, very obscure, but it is not reasonable on that account to relieve ourselves from the difficulty by resorting to the doctrine of 6pecial providential interferences. Even in individual cases we may recall singular instances of eccentricity in Nature's operations with respect to reproduction, many of which are as worthy to be attributed to a suspension of Nature's laws, as the present position of the Maori population.

Thus, we read in the Greek History of the twenty daughters of Danaus and these are matched by as many wives of another man. Bruce tells us that women in Eastern countries have children only for nine years; yet how prodigiously their populations have extended. Gideon had no fewer than 70 sons by his wives, besides 1 by his concubine. Bruce says, "the Imam of Sama was not an old man when I was in Arabia Felix in 1769, but he had 88 children then alive, of whom only 14 were sons. The Priest of the Nile had 70 and odd children, of whom, as I remember, above 50 were daughters. Gibbon says in his history, "the total amount of this imperfect calculation," (of the people of the Roman empire in the time of Claudius) "would rise to about 120 millions of persons, a degree of population which possibly exceeds that of modern Europe." The curious enquirer who is anxious to ascertain the increase or decrease of the population of Europe during 1700 years, must calculate whether the addition of Northern Europe is a compensation for the loss of the African and Asiatic provinces of the Roman empire. The population of England and Wales decreased during the decade of years ending 1710, the population in 1700 being 5,134,516, and in 1710, 5,066,516. Henry VIII had

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six wives and three children. Solomon had 500 wives and 1 son. And amongst the married ecclesiastics of England the number of children born to a clerk seems to increase in an inverse ratio with the value of his living.

In order to discover what these natural causes of decrease have been and are, we should, on the supposition that the retrograde change in the progress of the population commenced about the year 1830, first enquire whether any marked change took place in the habits or food of the people at about that period. And it is remarkable that about that time the discovery of the art of manufacturing putrid corn by continued steeping in water was made. From the date of that event this food eaten in a state of most offensive putrescence passed rapidly into general use, not merely as an occasional delicacy as in the case with dried sharks and other matter used as food in a semidecayed state both here and in the Polynesian Islands, but as a universal daily staple of diet. Every Maori who has attained the age of 40 years can remember the introduction of this noxious substance, and it is remarkable that at Rangiaohia where it began first to grow into disfavour, displaced by the wheat which under the energetic encouragement of the Rev. J. Morgan rose into notice, and gradually displaced the "kaanga kopiro," the decrease of the population has been 33 per cent, below the general average.

The date of this unhappy discovery was more perfectly fixed by an enquiry made from a female Ngapuhi slave, on whose arm was tattooed "J. T. (Anchor) 1824." This record proved to have been made by a sailor with whom the woman cohabited for a short time in the Bay of Islands, and, in reply to a question, she stated that this unwholesome food was discovered and brought into use a few years after that inscription was made.

Without attempting to ascribe any effects to the continued and large use of putrid corn as an article of food, an attempt to which neither special education nor knowledge subsequently acquired render me competent, I will simply quote from Baron Liebig's "Animal Chemistry," some observations which seem pertinent to this subject.

"By the recognition of the cause and propagation of putrefaction in complex organic atoms, the question of the nature of many contagions and miasms is rendered capable of a simple solution, and is reduced to the following.

Do facts exist, which prove that the state of the transformation or putrefaction of a substance is propagated likewise to any parts or constituents of the living body; that by contact with the putrefying body, a state is induced in those parts, like that in which the particles of the putrefying body themselves are? The question must be answered decidedly in the affirmative. . . . It is a fact that the use of several kinds of food, as flesh, ham, sausages, in certain states of decomposition, is followed in healthy persons by the most dangerous symptoms, and even by death..... Lastly, it is a universal observation that the origin of epidemic diseases is often to be traced to the "putrefaction of large quantities of animal and vegetable matters; that miasmatic diseases are endemic in places where the decomposition of organic matter is constantly taking place, as in marshy and moist localities; that they are developed epidemically under the same circumstances after inundations; also in places where a large number of people are gathered together with insufficient ventilation, as in ships, prisons, and besieged places." (Heule, Untersuchungen, p. 54.) Again, p. 57. "But we can never so surely predict the arising of epidemic diseases, as when a marshy surface has been dried up by continued heat; or when extensive inundations are followed by intense heat.

"Hence according to all the rules of scientific investigation, the conclusion is fully justified, that, in all cases where a process of putrefaction precedes the occurrence of a disease, or where the disease can be propagated by solid, liquid, or aeriform products of disease, and where no nearer cause of the disease can be discovered, the substances in a state of decomposition or transformation must be regarded as being, in consequence of that state, the proximate causes of the disease." Vide, however, the whole of Part II. on the metamorphoses of the animal tissues.

It is admitted that the continued use of salt meat or inferior food causes the most surprising changes in the vital processes, and, in particular, that it is a fruitful source of scrofula. This disease, developing itself in various forms;--tumours, tabes mesent, and consumption and other long diseases, besides a general prostration of vital energy both mental and physical has been, and is, the great destructive agent that has made such frightful inroads into the numbers of the Maori people. In fact, the Maori constitution appears to be rotten. A slight attack of illness, which would scarcely detain the European from his ordinary occupations strikes down the Maori, and the prostration is so complete that permanent recovery is the exception.

Will not the saturation of the whole system with this fearful disease solve also, in some measure, the problem of the unprolificness of the females, an equal share in the want of vigour being ascribed from the same cause to the males?

These suggestions are made with the greatest diffidence, and only with the hope before expressed that practical medicine will decide whether this view is just, or whether it must be rejected.

One other cause of depopulation suggests itself to the mind of the writer;--the constant intermixture of blood during the twenty generations that the Maoris have occupied this

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country. In the ranks of the lower animals, it is known, that breeding "in and in" for two or three generations is quite sufficient to take from the race house his speed, from the gamecock his courage and activity, from the dog his strength, and from all their health and energy. Does not the same natural law govern the human species?

How completely and constantly this handful of people have intermingled may be judged from the appended statement, in which the names of many well known chiefs of tribes, now far separated and sometimes hostile, may be recognized as relatives of each other, and in fact forming one large family. The scheme might easily be extended until the entire population was included. Had the various intermarriages been added a pefectly intermixed plan of consanguinity would have been exhibited. If such is the condition of the aristocracy, how constantly and intimately the persons of inferior rank must have interfused whose opportunities of marrying were usually confined to their own tribe.

The words "run out" present no definite meaning to the philologist, but the confused idea which they suggest to the mind of a race of animals whose higher physical qualities have disappeared and whose chief characteristics are utter loss of energy and vital force, is perfectly realised by the present aspect of the aborigines of this country.

In concluding this branch of the subject, I may remark that it is possible that another cause of decrease may be found entirely overriding all those previously suggested. There may be a law of nature, mysterious and inscrutable, under which no species can perpetuate itself beyond a certain period. We know that races of plants and of animals have died out, while the almost simultaneous extinction of large families, possibly widely scattered over the world, is a recognized fact. If families die out in accordance with this mysterious dispensation why should not also nations?

It can scarcely be questioned, that it is one of the duties of a government to use every endeavour not only to encourage the people under its care in the growth of civilization and respect for the laws, but also to direct and assist them in the attainment of such material advancement as is necessary to the preservation of the public health, and the proper increase of its numbers. It is true that prudence cannot be enforced by laws, without a great violation of natural liberty, and a risk of producing more evil than good. But still the very great influence of a just and enlightened government, and the effect of perfect security of property in creating habits of prudence, cannot for a moment be questioned.

It will perhaps be considered out of place, in a bare investigation of this character to refer to measures which may be adopted for the successful recuperation of this population, especially as it is a matter of great difficulty to examine questions of this nature without touching upon matters which belong rather to the politician than to the collator of statistics. But brief allusion may be not unfitly made to what appears to be the principal "conclusion of the matter."

Besides the measures which have lately been sanctioned by the legislature for imparting to the New Zealanders the benefits of law and civil institutions, the remedies to be employed for arresting the decay of the race must be directed to the improvement of their social condition by giving security and performance to their possession and occupation of land; and encouraging the growth of grass, so as to augment their material resources and enable them to obtain better food and clothing. There are, in the case of the Maoris, no pre-existing impediments to the accomplishment of these objects. Unlike the hunting races of the New World or the shepherd tribes of Asia, they have already, from the physical character of the country, and the utter absence of game and animals of the chase, been impelled into the position from which civilization takes its first upward step. And the lands are already assigned definitively to certain owners, although the boundaries of territorial rights are uncertain, and the titles are generally obscure and often conflicting. Still, the principle is recognized and national, and towards the carrying out of any scheme of advancement of social condition or settlement of titles to land, the people themselves are most anxious to give their aid.

Under the above definition are included all those measures of amelioration which a government, without exceeding its legitimate functions, may be fitly called upon, and qualified to undertake.

Thus, by giving security and permanence to the occupation and possession of land, will be achieved the grand requisite of civilization, fixity of residence. Good houses, intended to endure, will arise on land of which the tenure seems secure, and which may descend with its improvements to the children of the tenant whose labour is making it of value. By the exercise of the power of alienation a class of European settlers will be brought amongst them, who will by example and instruction wean the Maoris from their present desultory plan of agriculture to a system based upon the feeling of a perpetual right in the cultivator and his successors, and, who will moreover cause them to apprehend, that the secret which they have for many years been trying to find out, viz:--the art of living without labour, is one which will never be discovered. Permanent fences will be recognized as a necessity. The cultivated grasses, which will immediately follow or which may precede the division and legal

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tenure of land, will maintain sheep to furnish an annual income from their wool, and cows, whose milk will supply a nutritious food to the young and may reduce the mortality among that class of the population to the rate obtaining in the Otawhao establishment.

The diversion of the habits of the people into new and unprofitable channels such as results from the possession of a breed of light horses fit only for tribes of hunters, or the ownership of seagoing vessels which they are incompetent to manage, and which not uncommonly end a short career in loss and disappointment, is not so beneficial a direction of their energies as the encouragement and instruction of their natural tastes and ancient habits as cultivators of the soil.

To enlarge upon these subjects in this paper would be out of place. A quotation, however, is added forming the remainder of Mr. Heaphy's report, as that gentleman's reflections seem to have terminated in the same conclusion which has already been frequently expressed in writing by the collator in other papers. "I find," he says, "a population of 235 Maoris with a cultivated area of 168 acres. These 235 souls occupied an area of 35,000 acres of waste land, or in a proportion of 149 acres to each soul. The area of cultivated land appears to be low, but the Maori has no idea of turning old cultivations to account. They are suffered to become overgrown with dock or thistle, and after a few months' neglect have no claim to be included in the statistics of cultivated land. I am aware that any matured plan for the amelioration of the condition of the Natives should be governed by the results deduced from the whole census on its completion; but I cannot omit now suggesting that every means should be taken to induce the Maories to turn into pasture their old cultivations.

For the 168 acres of cultivated land included in the returns, there are about 1000 acres of old clearings, all of which, before the weeds had made head, would have been eminently adapted for grass, and would have required but little after attention or culture. These are now the strong holds of the burr, and no wool can be usefully grown in their vicinity. On grass lands so situated, always in convenient places and near their villages, the natives might easily maintain a sufficient number of cows to afford a wholesome and nutritious food for their children; milk instead of dried shark and stinking corn.

While land and cultivations are in common, and while the native has no sole and individual interest in the land cultivated and the locality inhabited, the incentive to steady industry will not overcome the propensity to roving and idleness. Securing to an individual by means of a crown grant his holding, even if it be but a small area, will, in inducing continued residence on the spot, its improvement year by year, and the natural collection around it of the appliances which lead to comfort;--such security of tenure, will, I believe, conduce more to the improvement of the Maori, than any plan that has yet been proposed, and will cause him and his successors to respect the laws of the power, which in their first exercise secured to him a status and an independence, an immunity from the encroachments of chief or tribe."

A simple scheme for settling the Native title to land somewhat analagous to the system pursued by our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 1 is appended to this paper, the operation of which would be simple and without risk to the European government or people;--the whole management and responsibility of the transaction resting with the Maori alone, guided only by the judicial officer of the district. The operation of this machinery would be slow, as none but the valuable lands would probably be desired to be enrolled, the mountainous or barren districts being left for pigruns or sale to the government. But no plan can effect this great object with speed. It must be remembered that the process of separating common titles and apportioning lands is not yet completed even in England. The number of acres of common land brought into cultivation, from the beginning of the reign of George III. to the end of the year 1834, was 6,840,540: and the number of Enclosure Acts passed by the legislature for this purpose during the period, was 3,742; and the process is still going on.

The devotion of the abandoned lands to pasture, and the expediency of encouraging generally among the Maoris the cultivation of the artificial grasses, has already been urged by the writer in other papers. This question is of very great and varied importance, embracing a much wider field than the simple recuperation of a population, or the retardation of its decay though in itself an object of sufficient magnitude to warrant exertion for its attainment.

In concluding this memorandum it should be stated, as an apology for defects and want of consecutiveness therein, that it has been written in circumstances often of considerable mechanical inconvenience and adverse to the elaboration, or even the intention of a connected train of thought,--circumstances, the difficulty of which has been increased, by the impossibility of access to many necessary documents and books of reference.

FRAS. D. FENTON, R. M.

Waikato, August, 1858.