138 Voyage of the Novara. 



called upon to institute most minute inquiries as to tlie sup- 

 posed causes of this lamentable feature. In a very ex- 

 haustive work upon this subject, by Mr. F. D. Fenton,* we 

 find for example that the proportion of births and deaths 

 among the entire population — the former of which in England 

 is 1 : 59, and the latter 1 : 34, and among the white settlers 

 of New Zealand is \\ 136 and 1 : 25 — gives among the abori- 

 gines the following startling results, — deaths 1 : 33*04, births 

 1 : 67" 13. The cause of this appalling decay of the Maori 

 race, which has been steadily going on since 1830, is not 

 alone due to the contact of the natives with civilization, but 

 chiefly to the sanguinary wars between the various races, of 

 which New Zealand was the theatre for a series of years, and 

 the natural results of those wars. For it was not merely 

 that in their constant battles the flower of their respective 

 tribes lost their lives, f but the mothers, to facilitate their own 

 escape, put to death most of the female infants at the breast. 

 Upon this followed, apparently jn consequence of the great 

 privations of their wandering life, through hard work and 



* Observations on the State of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand. By F. 

 D. Fenton, the compiler of the statistical tables of the native population. Auckland, 

 1859. "The object of the publication by the Government of this paper is to draw 

 attention to the state of the native population, especially to the decrease in numbers 

 — with a view to invite inquiry as to the cause, and suggestions of a remedy." 



t Of the enormous waste of human life caused by these wars some idea may be 

 formed from the fact that at the storming and capture of the single pah of Mataki- 

 taki on the river Waipa 2000 warriors were killed ; a larger amount of killed than 

 that of the English army at Waterloo! 



