340 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



the non-adult population of 1844 was being produced, and 

 has continued with great energy up to the present time." 

 The following statements are taken from Mr. Fenton (p. 26), 

 but, as the numbers are 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 civilized 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 

 non-adult males within the same district were found to be 

 178, and the non- adult females 142, that is in the ratio of 

 125. 3 to 100. 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 non-adult 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 practiced there to a 

 frightful extent, but was by no means confined to female 

 infants, as is shown by Mr. Ellis," and as I have been in- 

 formed by Bishop Staley and the Eev. Mr. Coan. Never- 

 theless, 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 is prob- 



»« "Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii," 1826, p. 298. 

 * "History of the Sandwich Islands," 1843, p. 93. 



