OiiAP. Vlli. Proportion of the Sexes. 257 



»re not large, and as the census was not accurate, uniform 



results cannot be expected. It should be borne in mind in this 



and the following cases, that the normal state of every population 



is an excess of women, at least in all civilised countries, chiefly 



owing to the greater mortality of the male sex during youth, and 



partly to accidents of all kinds later in life. In 1858, the 



native population of New Zealand was estimated as consisting 



of 31,667 males and 24,303 females of all ages, that is in the 



ratio of 130'3 males to 100 females. But during this same year, 



and in certain limited districts, the numbers were ascertained 



with much care, and the males of all ages were here 753 



and the females 616 ; that is in the ratio of 122''2 males to 100 



females. It is more important for us that during this same 



year of 1858, the iiou-adalt males within the same district 



were found to be 178, and the non-adult females 142, that is in 



the ratio of 12o-3 to lOO. It may be added that in 1844, at 



which period female infanticide had only lately ceased, the 



non-adult males in one district were 281, and the von-aduU 



females only 194, that is in the ratio of 144 '8 males to 100 females. 



In the Sandwich Islands, the males exceed the females in 



number. Infanticide was formerly practised there to a frightful 



extent, but was by no mtans confined to female infants, as 



is shewn by Mr. Ellis,'" and as I have been informed by Bishop 



Staley and the Eev. Mr. Coan. Nevertheless, another apparently 



trustworthy writer, Mr. Jarves," whose observations apply to 



the whole archipelago, remarks : — " Numbers of women are to 



" be found, who confess to the murder of from three to six or eight 



" children ;" and he adds, " females from being considered less 



" useful than males were more often destroyed." From what is 



known to occur in other parts of the world, this statement i.s 



probable; but must be received with much caution. The 



practice of infanticide ceased about the year 1819, when idolatry 



was abolished and missionaries settled in the Islands. A careful 



census in 1839 of the adult and taxable men and women in the 



island of Kauai and in one district of Oahu (Jarves, p. 404), 



gives 4723 males and 3776 females; that is in the ratio of 



125-08 to 100. At the same time the number of males under 



fourteen years in Kauai and imder eighteen in Oahu was 1797, 



and of females of the same ages 1429 ; and here we have the 



ratio of 125'75 males to 100 females. 



In a census of all the islands in 1850," the males of all ages 



•» ' Narrative of a Tour through " This is given in the Rev. H. T. 



Hawaii,' 1826, p. 298. Cheever's ' Life in the Sandwich Is- 



•' ' History of the Sandwich lands,' 1851, d. 277. 

 Ulands,' 1843, p. 93. 



18 



