10 
eject, on can be. It seems a law of nature that the primitive uncivilized 
races shonlcl disappear before the restraints, diseases, and must I 
say .t, vices of civilization. Ifor does this apply only to degraded 
aces, such as the former inhabitants of T.asmania. but with equal 
orce to the &r more advanced lied Indians of America, the 
Maoris of Kew Zealand, and even to the natives of Hawaii, who 
have taken so readily to European and American customs and 
institutions, and are still under native government of a very 
advanced form ; even these people have not been able to stand the 
Shock of encounter with European civilization, and free and 
enlightened as they are. will soon disappear from the face of the 
earth. The first regular census of the Hawaiian Islanders was 
talren in 1832. at which time the population was found to be 
130,000. At the present time it is reduced to 60,000. I need not 
speak of the North American Indians, who, like the Bison which 
formed tlieir chief support, are retreatinc; before the advance of a 
civilization to which their nature wiU not permit them to conform; 
nor will I dwell upon the inevitable fate which awaits the 
aborigines of Australia, or the splendid Maori natives of New 
Zealand, now rapidly becoming extinct,* but will sketch as briefly 
as possible the rapid and complete extinction of a whole race of 
men almost within our own times. 
I have condensed the following particulars from Prof. Blowers’ 
paper “On the Native Paces of the Pacific Ocean,” read before 
* The following paragraph which appeared in the ‘ Standard’ for 7tli of 
August, 18/. 9, clearly shows the rapidity with wliicii the Maori race is 
dying out:— 
“ We gather from the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ of 19th June, that the 
Maori population [in 1878] was found to be 42,819 ; in 1874 it was 46 016 
making a decrease in four years of 3197. As is usual in these returns' the 
males considerably exceed the female.s, the former being 23,533, and the 
atter only 19,286. But the most characteristic feature of tliese estimates 
for many years is the enormous disparity in the proportion of adults and 
childien. Of the total of 42,819 souls last year, no less than 14,533 were 
males over fifteen years, and females of the same age, 11,802. In Euroiiean 
countries the men usually average a fifth or sixth of the population while 
at present among the Maoris they constitute a third.” * 
