Hill. — The Maoris To-day and To-morroto. 185 



the population — natives, haif-castes, and so on— and each 

 census shows a sudden change ; sometimes there are a large 

 number of half-castes, at other times there is a notable de- 

 crease. Yet no efforts, as far as I can gather, have ever 

 been made to keep a record of births and deaths among the 

 natives. This is now comparatively an easy matter, for the 

 native schools and the half-educated native are to be met 

 everywhere, and there would be no difficulty in keeping fairly 

 correct records, just as is done in the case of the colonists. 

 In the early days, when the missionaries dwelt in the land, 

 the returns of births, marriages, baptisms, and deaths were 

 carefully kept, and now that the breath of colonial advance- 

 ment bas been felt, even in the inmost recesses of the 

 Urewera country, efforts should be made by the Government, 

 acting through the Native Councils, to keep a record of all 

 births, marriages, and deaths. When this takes place it 

 will be seen that the period of childhood is a sad one among 

 the Maoris. Thoughtlessness, want of proper food, and 

 ignorance, are the three factors operating to-day among the 

 Maori women, just as they operated in the early days of 

 settlement ; and, notwithstanding all the pretended sympathy 

 that has been shown to them, no effort has ever been made 

 to organize them and to bring them under regulations such 

 as they must have if they are to continue as a people among 

 us. 



Organization is the only hope for continuance among 

 an advancing community, and to destroy the organization of 

 a people is to ensure their certain disappearance. This has 

 been done in the case of the natives. Their methods of 

 government have gone, for the chief is only so in name ; and, 

 although nominally there has been an increase in the native 

 population, it undoubtedly arises from causes set forth in 

 this paper. Unless means are adopted to help in the better- 

 ment of the women there can be no doubt as to the fate of 

 the native race ; but just as the Saxon women at the Con- 

 quest saved the language of their country and their identity 

 as a people, so will the Maori women save their people if 

 means are taken to train them in all those aspects of domestic 

 and social life of which they are so sadly ignorant and without 

 which progress is impossible. 



Addendum. 



A summary of this paper was published by the Hawke's 

 Bay Herald after it had been read, and Mr. Hindmarsh, 

 sheep-farmer, of Tokomaru Bay, East Coast, forwarded to me 

 a return of thirty married native couples whom he had known 



