Segak. — The Population of New Zealand. 445 



Sennacherib represents the invasion as successful, and attri- 

 butes the success to the Assyrian gods, just as the Biblical 

 account ascribes the disaster to the intervention of the Jewish 

 God Yahveh, whose name we English for the last two or three 

 hundred years have mispronounced " Jehovah." 



Note. — A passage referring to the connection between rats 

 and the plague is probably not generally known, and may be 

 of interest. In the travels in China of the late Captain Gill, 

 published in 1883, under the title of " The Eiver of Golden 

 Sand," the writer, when speaking of the great Mahometan 

 rebellion a few years previously, says, "During the rebellion 

 a horrible epidemic, like the plague, appeared, that, first of all, 

 attacked the rats. These animals used to die about the 

 houses for a few days, and then they would migrate in vast 

 numbers from the towns to the fields. After this the disease 

 seized upon the miserable population, and carried off' an enor- 

 mous number of the people." 



Art. LTV II. — The Population of New Zealand. 



By H. W. Segar, M.A., Professor of Mathematics, University 



College, Auckland. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th June, 1900.] 



The following paper presents the argument of the presidential 

 address for the year 1900 to the Auckland branch of the New 

 Zealand Institute. The address was not written out, but was 

 delivered by the aid of a few notes and diagrams. The dia- 

 grams are not reproduced, as there is not the same necessity 

 for them here as m making a subject which depends so largely 

 on statistics clear to a public audience. 



Many tables are given to illustrate special points, and 

 these deal sometimes with populations outside New Zealand. 

 In such cases the results of the censuses of 1890 and 1891 are 

 used, though, except when comparisons are made or some 

 other census used for some special purpose, figures for New 

 Zealand are taken from the census of 1896. Many of the 

 tables are taken from blue-books and other statistical sources, 

 and others were specially calculated. In these latter there is 

 no attempt at an extreme accuracy such as would be un- 

 necessary and beyond the purpose in hand, but no factors 

 are neglected that would make any material difference to the 

 argument. 



