154 Transactions. 



Art. XIII. — The Passing of the Maori : An Inquiry into the 

 Principal Causes of the Decay of the Pace. 



By Archdeacon Walsh. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 8th July, 1907.] 



That the Maori is gradually though rapidly passing away there 

 can be no doubt. Any one who has lived for even a few years 

 in the Maori country, or who has visited the Native districts 

 from time to time, has the fact forced upon him. The large 

 kaingas have shrunk to a fraction of their former size ; many 

 of the smaller ones have disappeared altogether ; tribal gather- 

 ings that ten or twenty years ago mustered thousands now 

 barely muster hundreds ; the Native contingent is less and less 

 conspicuous at the race meetings, agricultural shows, and other 

 country gatherings ; while the picturesque groups and figures 

 that once gave such interesting variety to the city and town 

 populations are now the exception rather than the rule. In 

 spite of various statements, based on census returns and on 

 local personal observation, that the Maori is holding his own, 

 or even increasing in numbers, the fact is patent that, taking it 

 as a whole, the race is fast dying out, and that, if the decay 

 continues at the present rate, a comparatively short time will 

 witness its extinction, though perhaps for a few generations some 

 gradually diminishing traces of mixed blood may be observable 

 in the white population. The object of the present papei is to 

 try and trace some of the principal causes that have combined 

 to produce this wholesale and rapid decay. 



Maximum Population. 



Most of the present Maori tribes trace their origin from the 

 great heke or Polynesian migration which occurred some five 

 hundred years ago; but there is abundant evidence that the 

 country was already occupied by a numerous population, with 

 whom sooner or later the Polynesian immigrants came into 

 collision. These original inhabitants seem to have been of a 

 peaceable disposition, and tradition states that they were often 

 the victims of a wholesale slaughter. As is usual in such cases, 

 once the strength of the beaten party was sufficiently broken 

 the remnant of the able-bodied men would be taken for slaves 

 and the women for wives, when the aboriginals would be ab- 

 sorbed in the invaders, who increased and multiplied until they 



