Newman.—On Causes leading to the Extinetion of the Maori. 461 
than 1,500. Colenso took the greatest pains to number accurately the natives 
in Hawke’s Bay and part of Wairarapa, in 1847-48, and counted 3,704, and 
ascertained that there were 45 tribes and sub-tribes: seventeen years later he 
reckons them at 2,000. Judge Fenton showed that, in fourteen years 
(1844-58), there was a decrease in the Waikato of 19 per cent. In 1858, 
the same learned authority, on good data, apportions them thus :— 
Males. Females. 
North Island .. én -- 29,984 22,993 == 52,977 
South Island .. a ree 957 = 2,283 55.970 
Stewart’s Island and Ruapuke 110 oe = 200; : 
Chatham Islands re : 247 363°" =: 510 
Mr. Alexander McKay’s census for the South and Stewart Islands in 
1868 is :— 
Adult Males -- 961 Adult Females .. 711 
Male Children .. 375 Female Childre g = 2,353 
1,326 1,027 
In census of 1881 the figures are— 
Adult Males a». 697 Adult Females .. 526 
Children, Males .. 424 Children, Females ~ 2,061 
1121 940 
Colenso again in 1863 estimated the entire population at 49,000. It 
__ Would be mere waste of time to supply a further list of figures all more or 
oe less accurate, but none strictly so. According to the census of 1881, which 
is fairly correct, there are 24,370 males and 19,729 females = 44,099, but 
of this number upwards of 400 are half-castes. 
These statistics with a host of others might be adduced to justify the wide- 
Spread belief that the race is rapidly dying out. Every intelligent observer 
has had before his eyes continually, ample proof of their astonishingly rapid 
_ Gisappearance. Here, within a 5-mile radius of this very lecture-room, 
‘Stee this colony was founded exactly 42 years ago, see how the Maoris 
ae have disappeared. There are now within that area only 37. There were, 
a years ago, a pa at Ngahauranga, one at Kaiwarra, a few families living 
_ ‘Rear the site of Dr. Featherston’s house, a few at Mr. Izard’s; shows, 60 
