Newman.—On Causes leading to the Extinction of the Maori. 475 
(2.) Abundance of food-supply to mothers is found to result in an excess of 
male offspring. (8.) It is found elsewhere that if the male are consider- 
ably older than the female parents, males will be in excess, and vice versa. 
Among the Maoris the male are usually considerably older than the female 
parents, and male births do preponderate. The statistics of civilized 
countries show an excess of male births, this excess being in after-life 
greatly reduced by the greater death rate existing among male children. - 
Later in life Maori women die from the evils of early breeding, and from 
their greater liability, whilst pregnant, to take any epidemic diseases. 
Half-castes. 
Reasoning from analogy, it would have seemed probable that if much of 
the infertility of the Maoris were due to purity of race and interbreeding, a 
large fertility would have attended a cross with the more vigorous fertile 
white race: such, however, is not the case. It is true that the marriage of 
a white man and a Maori woman is often attended with a large family, but 
considering how very frequent have been and still are the promiscuous 
unions between the two races, the result is surprisingly small. No accurate 
census exists of the half-castes, but their number of all ages and sexes is 
probably considerably under 1,000. ‘The half-castes are often handsome 
and well made, but they all die young, indeed there is a wide-spread belief 
that scarcely any attain the age of forty. Young half-caste women especially 
die very young unless they are well cared for. Both sexes die of consump- 
tion ; the ravages of the chief destroyer of both parent races seems to attack 
them with intensified vigour. Topinard, writing on the respiration of 
Various races of men, tells us that the mulattos have a chest capacity 
inferior to that of either parent race. Even in sultry Hindostan, the Topas, 
o h0ke between Hindoo women and French or Portugese men, are far more 
liable to phthisis than either parent race’ Huth (‘Marriage of Near Kin”) 
climate is excellent for both 
ey ease 
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