4-2 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



when the French first colonised the island. They are fast disappearing, owing to constant 

 warfare, the introduction of drinking habits, and the practice * of abortion. Their number 

 now is less than 22,000, a great decrease since the middle of the present century. 



NEW ZEALAND. 



IN the year 1840, when the islands of New Zealand were first colonised by England, they 

 were inhabited by the Maori race, who were then much more numerous than now. It would 

 seem that the Maoris are dying out not because they are vicious, but because they are very 

 filthy and do not know how to make a proper use of clothes. An appalling number of deaths 

 occur annually from what may be called "galloping consumption," and there is no doubt 

 .that the misuse of clothes is responsible for much of this terrible waste of life. A Maori 

 woman, visiting town, parades the streets muffled up to the eyes in flannels, furs, rugs, and 

 wraps of every description. On returning home, these are all cast aside and replaced by 

 a thin cotton bodice and a chintz petticoat. Thus scantily clothed, she squats down before 

 a fire outside the house, and cooks the family meal. It is much the same with the men: one 

 day a thick woollen shirt, the next a thin cotton one. Overcoats appear, by a curious 

 perversion, to be worn in summer rather than in winter. The favourite place for lounging 

 about is one with plenty of damp grass, and the most popular building site the edge of a 

 swamp! We need not be surprised that habits such as these cause a heavy death-rate. 



In the year 1840 the number of Maoris was probably 120,000; in 1856 it had fallen to 

 65,000; in 1874, to 45,740; in 1886, to 41,432; and the last census (1896) puts down the 

 number of natives and half-castes at 39,834, exclusive of 2,259 half-castes living with the 

 Europeans. Peschel remarks that English grasses are spreading with great rapidity and 

 supplanting the indigenous vegetation. The native rat is being replaced by the Norwegian 



variety, our house-sparrow is now very common, 

 and nearly everything native is disappearing. 

 The people say, "As the white man's rat has 

 extirpated our rat, so the European fly is 

 driving out our flv. The foreign clover is 

 killing our ferns, and the Maori himself will 

 disappear before the white man!" 



It is a pity that this singularly fine race 

 are destined to die out. They are tall, power- 

 ful, and well made; the colour of the skin is 

 brown, as with all Polynesians, and never black, 

 although some are darker than others. The 

 variation in type puzzled ethnologists until it 



was perceived that there has been here, as in 

 most other parts of the world, a certain amount 

 of fusion. Thus, many Maoris are of fair com- 

 plexion, with straight hair, and the character- 

 istic features of a handsome Polynesian; but 

 others are to be found with a much darker 

 skin, curly or almost frizzly hair, the long 

 and broad arched nose of the Papuan of New 

 Guinea; or it may be with the coarse, thick 

 features of the lower Melanesian races. The 

 facts can only be explained on the supposition 

 that when the Maoris first came to these islands 

 they discovered an indigenous Melanesian race. 

 Probably the men were soon exterminated, but 



Photo by Valentine <k Song, Ltd.} 



A MAORI GIRL AND CHILD. 



[Dundee. 



