1879. | A Sketch of New Zealand. 73 
These aborigines, Maoris, as they termed themselves, were 
without any form of worship; their nearest approach to a religion 
being the exaggerated myths and fables of their ancestors. They 
stand among the very first of uncivilized races, not yielding in 
personal vigor or bravery to the best of the North American 
Indians, and unlike them possessing a mind remarkably plastic 
and capable of improvement and Christian civilization. Such 
Lake Wakatipu. 
were the people of New Zealand before the pale-faces came 
among them; since that time their destiny has changed. Although 
they have abandoned the practice of cannibalism and ceased the 
fierce wars among themselves, yet they have met a new element 
in the struggle for existence that is more potent than either. The 
very presence of the white man seem to affect these children of 
nature like a deadly malaria. The Maoris, themselves, are aware 
of their destiny and say, “as the clover killed the fern, and the 
European dog the Maori dog; as the Maori rat was destroyed by 
the Pakeha rat, so our people also will be gradually supplanted 
and exterminated by the Europeans.” According to Dieffen- 
bach’s calculations the native population of New Zealand was, at 
one time, about 115,000; in 1872 it had decreased to a little more 
than 45,000. The natives that remain are every day departing 
farther and farther from the customs and traditions of their 
ancestors. Many of the arts that occupied the people in former 
days are now forgotten; they no longer shape and polish imple- 
ments of stone, or weave blankets and mats of Phormium. The 
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