Statistician’s Analysis Of Maoris In Census In 1956

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29192, 30 April 1960, Page 14

Statistician’s Analysis Of Maoris In Census In 1956

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 29. Of the total New Zealand population of 2,174,062 enumerated at the 1956 census, 187,151, or 6.31 per cent, were classified as Maoris. This means that there was one Maori to every 15 non-Maoris, says the Department of Statistics.

A Maori for census purposes is defined as a person with half or more Maori blood. Maori and other Polynesian mixtures are, however, counted in the Maori population regardless of the degree of Maori blood. Although accurate records of Maori numbers were kept during the early years of European settlement in New Zealand it is known that the Maori population declined with the advent of white settlement and that this decline continued until the beginning of the twentieth century. At each census since 1901, Maori increases were recorded and between 1926 and 1956 the Maori population more than doubled. Between the last two census, 1951 and 1956, the Maori average annual increase rate was 3.5 per cent., compared with 2.2 per cent, for the European oopulation. Most in North Island Of the total Maori population 96.2 per cent, were located in the North Island, and 72.5 per cent, in the Auckland provincial district. The drift to the towns, a characteristic of the New Zealand population generally, is accentuated in the case of Maoris. Where 9 per cent, of Maoris were located in cities and boroughs in 1926, this rose to 19 per cent, in 1951, and 24 per cent, in 1956. Perhaps the most outstanding characteristic of the Maori population is its youth. Of every 100 Maoris 47 were under 15 years in 1956, and 58 under 20 years. In the European population the figures were 30 and 37 respectively out of every 100. Con-

versely the proportion of aged is very small—four Maoris out of every 100 were 60 years and over compared with 13 Europeans. The industrial distribution of the Maori working population differed from that of the European. Relatively more Maori malefe were engaged in agriculture and construction and relatively fewer in commerce and services. There were very few Maori females in commerce. Data on Maori incomes were collected for only the second time at the 1956 census. Relatively more Maoris than Europeans were in the lower income groups, though again the differences were slighter for females. The comparative youthfulness of the Maori population contributed to this, but not enough by itself to account for the differences. Religious Affiliations Similarly, the higher proportion of wage and salary earners and lower proportion of employers and workers on their own account in the Maori labour force is explained to some extent by youth As in the European population the religious profession most strongly represented in the Maori population was the Church of England. However, the second largest religious profession for Europeans, the Presbyterian, comprising some 24 per cent, of their total population claims only 2 per cent, of the Maori population. After the Church of England the largest religious bodies among Maoris were Roman Catholic with 16 per cent., Ratana, a Maori church established about 1925,

with 14 per cent., Methodist with 8 per cent., and Latter Day Saints (or Mormon) with 7 per cent.

At the 1956 census there were 21,059 inhabited permanent private Maori dwellings. Of these 84 per cent, were classified as ordinary private dwellings, 2 per cent, as flats, and 13 per cent, as “huts, whares and baches.” The comparative European figures were 89 per cent., 8 per cent, and 2 per cent.

The average number of occupants of Maori inhabited permanent private dwellings on the night of the 1956 census was 5.57 persons, compared with 3.51 persons in European dwellings. Inter-marriage Increasing

Although there is increasing inter-marriage between Maoris and other section of the comunity the majority of the Maori population, 64 per cent, in 1956, compared with 71 per cent, in 1926, were classified as Maoris of full blood. Between 1916 and 1956 those of full blood increased by 15 per cent., and the remainder of the Maori population by 26 per cent. A study was made in 1956, similar to one in 1951, of the parentage of children who had some degree of Maori blood and who were located in the Auckland provincial district. As in 1951 it was found that the proportions living in towns increased with the decrease in the degree of Maori blood, showing the link between urban drift and intermarriage of Maoris with other peoples. Out of every 100 Maoris of full blood only 17 lived in towns. This rose to 29 in the case of halfcaste Maoris, and increased progressively until out of every 100 persons of one-eighth Maori and seven-eighths European descent 54 lived in the towns. Unions between Maoris and nonMaoris take place most frequently through the non-Maori male and the Maori female. For instance, of the 10,500 children in the survey with one full European parent. 6800 had European fathers and only 3700 European mothers.