CHAP. V.] NATIVE TRIBES. 77 



ened down by the influence of missionaries and other 

 Europeans. They occupy by far the greater part 

 of New Zealand, and claim, besides, by conquest, 

 all the land as far as Taranaki on the western coast, 

 from which they drove numerous tribes into the 

 country on both sides of Cook's Straits, and only a 

 few stragglers of the latter remained near the 

 Sugarloaf Islands. The villages on the Waipa are 

 very numerously inhabited, each village containing 

 from 300 to 400 people. The Waikato tribes can col- 

 lectively bring 6000 men into the field, and the whole 

 population amounts at least to 24,000, if not more ; 

 as in these interior tribes the average number of two 

 children to a family is scarcely sufficiently high. 



Amongst the Waikato tribes several mission- 

 stations have been established; at Manukao, at 

 Marae-nui, at the mouth of the Waikato, and at 

 Otawao, are Church missionary stations ; at Wain- 

 garoa, Aotea, and Kawia, are Wesleyan stations. 

 The number of natives who have become Christians 

 daily increases, although many tribes have opposed 

 altogether the introduction of the new doctrine. 



VI. Nga-te-awa. There are two large divisions 

 of the Nga^te-awa, one occupying both sides of 

 Cook's Straits, from Taranaki to Port Nicholson, 

 and from Cape Farewell to Cloudy Bay in the 

 middle island ; the other living on the east coast 

 of the northern island. Although these two divi- 

 sions are situated at a great distance from each 

 other, and there is little communication between 



