Average Height and Weight of Maories and Europeans. 123 



sexes of natives, we nevertheless had an opportunity of mea- 

 suring some individuals, whose appearance seemed to present 

 a very fair average. 



Here we ought to remark that many years ago. Dr. A. Thom- 

 son, surgeon of the 58th regiment, impressed apparently with 

 the value of these experiments as aiding the diagnostics of va- 

 rious races of men, had made a great number of measurements 

 of the natives during a long residence on the island. These, 

 however, were mainly confined to height, weight, magnitude 

 of chest, and physical strength of individuals, but which are of 

 much value, having been compared at the time with similar 

 results obtained from an equal number of British soldiers, 

 thus furnishing most interesting standards of comparison for 

 the two races. Dr. Thomson measured, for instance, the 

 height of 147 natives, and found them to average 5 ft. 6f 

 inches. Of these, 35 measm^ed 5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 7 in. ; 20 

 from 5 ft. 5 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. ; 2 from 5 ft. 11 in. to 6 ft. ; one 6 

 ft. 1 in. ; and one who measured 6 ft. b\ in. Of 617 men of 

 the 58tli regiment, the average height was 5 ft. 7f inches. 



Like the English, the Maories attain their full stature after 

 they have completed their 20th year, the average height of 

 46 individuals between 16 and 20 being 5 ft. 6 in., whereas 

 of individuals between 21 and 25 it was 5 ft. 6f inches, 

 the average height of the human race in the temj^erate climes 

 of Europe being 5 ft. 5 in. to 5 ft. 6 in., according to Haller. 



The weight of New Zealanders, as compared with that of 

 English soldiers, gave the following remarkable result in the 



