The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1904. THE FUTURE OF THE MAORI.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 228, 23 September 1904, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1904. THE FUTURE OF THE MAORI.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For tlic wrong that needs re»inta»os. For the future in the distance. And the good that vie con do.

The annual report of the Maori Health Officer, Dr. Pomare, deals with several interesting aspects of the Maori problem. When the returns of the last census were published many people expressed gratification at learning that there was a nominal increase of over 3000 Maoris within the five years that had elapsed since the previous census was taken. But it was pointed out at the tiiiie uiat this increase was probably more apparent than real. With th° opening of the country and the improvement of means of communication, the census ia now taken in the native districts much more thoroughly than was possible 10 or 20 years ago; and the apparent growth of numbers has been certainly due in a large degree to the greater care and completeness with which the enumerators did their work in compiling last census returns. This view is borne out by Dr. Pomare, who holds that in spile of the encouraging results of the last census, the Maori race is gradually but surely decreasing. Those who know the North Island at all intimately hardly need to be reminded of the many vestiges of the native past which prove that the Maoris centuries ago were far more numerous than to-day. Nor do the internecine tribal wars which once depopulated the islands entirely explain the diminution of their numbeis. Since the wars ceased, and the life of the Maori has been -as secure from violence as that of the European, the decrease in numbers has gone on with but slightly diminished rapidity; and nothing can be done to save the relics of this fine race from extinction unless the causes of their decadence are effectually giappled with in time.

To those familiar with the Maoris and their manner of life, it is not necessary to prove that the advent of European civilisation had a very destructive effect upon the race. It is a commonplace with ethnologists that a savage

people when first brought into contact with a race on a higher plane of social development contracts little of civilisation but its vices. And those vices have certainly contributed their share towards the deterioration of the Maori since first the white man came. But neither drink nor immorality will fully explain the fact that this race, physically equal, if not superior, to most Europeans is falling steadily behind in the struggle for existence. Nor can it be said of the Maoris, as' it has been said with, great truth of the Fijians and other decadent races of the Pacific, that they die because they have no longer the will to live. The Maori has been able to rise above the level of the primitive savage, who, finding his old occupations gone and his traditions and beliefs contemptuously cast aside, sits down to die in despair. It is not for want of occupation or of incentive to industry, or of scope for energy and ambition, that the Maori race is decaying. Happily the history of the colony in the past and its annals to day provide many proofs that the Maori at his best can compete on eqdal terms either intellectually or in the praetic.il conduct of life with the dominant white race. x The Maori has every inducement to live and to make a success of life; and it is some consolation to find that Dr. Pomare confirms the opinion often expressed by many competent authorities that the relative diminution of the Maoris is due almost entirely to physical and social causes, which could either be remedied or removed.

The vices of civilisation have indeed exercised a baneful influence upon the Maori; but we may reasonably doubt if drink, with all its attendant evils, has done the Maori so much physical, harm as his conscientious and praiseworthy attempts to adopt English clothing and English methods of living. The old open-air life was, for the half-clad, or wholly nude, warrior, far healthier than the existence "cribb'd, cabin'd and confined ,, that many of his descendants now Lead. Ignorant of the most primitive hygienic laws, and almost incredibly careless about such matters as wet clothes, tne Maori easily falls a prey to disease. The evils of tohungaism. reveal in an extreme form the incapacity of the average Maori for taking a rational view of his health; and till these crude and barbarous practices are entirely stamped out we need not expect much permanent improvement in the physical condition of the race. Moreover, though the Maori is not, in the ordinary#sense, lazy—for he is capable of immense and prolonged exertions—he has not yet contracted the civilised habit hardest of all to acquire—the practice of steady industry. Dr. Pomare regards the social customs of the Maori, such as the tangi, as a serious hindrance to the formation of regular and indus trious habits; and till the social forms of Maori life are radically altered it will always be difficult, at least for the North Island Maori, to stick continuously to work for any great length of time. It is from the education of tiie better class of the Maoris that we must expect the best results in this direction; and that education—intellectual, moral and social—the colony has already made praiseworthy efforts to supply. Great things may fairly be hoped from the exertions and the exam-

pie of the many men and women of the race who, having proved their capacity to acquire the best that English, edu cation and social life can give thei. are returning to live among their people, and extend to them the advantages that they themselves have enjoyed. No one can teach the Maori as well as the Maori; and it is to Dr. Pomare and those of his race who, like him, take a serious and earnest view of their responsibilities towards their own people, that we must look to decide the momentous auestion whether the Maori is to fill that permanent place in the development of the colony that his many admirable qualities might command, or whether he is destined, like many another "provisional" race, slowly to fade away and ultimately and inevitably to disappear.