Newman. — On Causes leading to the Extinction 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 29,984 22,993 = 52,977\ 



Soiith Island 1,326 957 = 2,283 



>■ 55 970 

 Stewart's Island and Kuapuke 110 90 = 200 [ ' 



Chatham Islands .... 247 263 = ' 51oj 



Mr. Alexander McKay's census for the South and Stewart Islands in 

 1868 is :— 



Adult Males . . 951 Adult Females . . 711 \ 



Male Children . . 375 Female Children . . 316 I g 353 



1,326 1,027J 



In census of 1881 the figures are — 



Adult Males .. 697 Adult Females .. 526 \ 



Children, Males . . 424 Children, Females 414 I 2 Qg j 



1,121 940) 



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 

 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 

 disappearance. Here, within a 5-mile radius of this very lecture-room, 

 since this colony was founded exactly 42 years ago, see how the Maoris 

 have disappeared. There are now within that area only 37. There were, 

 42 years ago, a pa at Ngahauranga, one at Kaiwarra, a few families living 

 near the site of Dr. Featherston's house, a few at Mr. Izard's ; about 50 

 people at the bottom of Hobson-street ; about 20 at Wordsworth-street, and 

 60 at Te Aro (Heaphy). A very few years before that there were three pas 

 on Miramar peninsula ; in one bloody battle between two of these pas, there 

 were 500 killed on one side, and 70 on the other— even allowing for exag- 

 geration in the two last figures, it shows a large population where now no 

 Maori exists. So too wherever we revisit after a lapse of 20 years we find 

 the same thing — the abolition of the pas, or their tenancy by a fraction of 

 their former population. I know one ready objection to this statement is. 



