210 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



Another careful observer of the natives, Mr. Davis, remarks, 

 * ' The births have been few and the deaths numerous. 

 This may have been in a great measure owing to their 

 change of living and food; but more so to their banishment 

 from the mainland of Van Diemen's Land and consequent 

 depression of spirits " (Bonwick, pp. 388, 390). 



Similar facts have been observed in two widely different 

 parts of Australia. The celebrated explorer, Mr. Gregory, 

 told Mr. Bonwick, that in Queensland " the want of repro- 

 duction was being already felt with the blacks, even in the 

 most recently settled parts, and that decay would set 

 in." Of thirteen aborigines from Shark's Bay who visited 

 Murchison River, twelve died of consumption within three 

 months. * 



The decrease of the Maories of New Zealand has been 

 carefully investigated by Mr. Fenton, in an admirable 

 report, from which all the following statements, with one 

 exception, are taken, f The decrease in number since 1830 

 is admitted by every one, including the natives themselves, 

 and is still steadily progressing. Although it has hitherto 

 been found impossible to take an actual census of the 

 natives, their numbers were carefully estimated by resi- 

 dents in many districts. The result seems trustworthy, 

 and shows that during the fourteen years, previous to 1858, 

 the decrease was 19.42 per cent. Some of the tribes, thus 

 carefully examined, lived above a hundred miles apart, 

 some on the coast, some inland; and their means of sub- 

 sistence and habits differed to a certain extent (p. 28). 

 The total number in 1858 was believed to be 53,700, and 

 in 1872, after a second interval of fourteen years, another 

 census was taken, and the number is given as only 

 36,359, showing a decrease of 32.29 per cent. !J 

 Mr. Fenton, after showing in detail the insufficiency of 

 the various causes usually assigned in explanation of this 

 extraordinary decrease, such as new diseases, the profligacy 

 of the women, drunkenness, wars, etc., concludes on 

 weighty grounds that it depends chiefly on the unproduc- 



* For these cases see Berwick's " Daily Life of tlie Tasnianians,* 

 1870, p. 90; and the " Last of the Tasmanians," 1870, p. 386. 



f " Observations on the Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand,*' 

 published by the Government, 1859. 



% "New Zealand," by Alex. Kennedy, 1873, p. 47. 



