FUTURE OF MAORIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 April 1931, Page 9

FUTURE OF MAORIS

ILLUMINATING FIGURES. Of the 03,670 Maoris in New Zealand 96 per cent, live in the North Island. The number' who live in the South Island is 2,804, and many of them are so pakeha-like that the name "Maori” is hardly appropriate. According to the information compiled by the Census Office, most of the Maoris are located in the Auckland provincial district. The main stronghold is the Auckland Peninsula, which holds 15,000 natives, almost one-fourth of the total Maori population. In the counties of Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, with--7280, one finds the densest Maori communities of the present day. In the Coromandel-Taupo area there are located some 4000; in Taupo, Rotorua, and the Bay of Plenty districts some 8200; Poverty Bay, 6600; and the Waikato counties, nearly 4000. The Maori is not an urban dweller; nearly 90 per cent live in counties, and only 1.67 per cent, in cities. Dealing with the question of MaoriEuropeans, the census report gives 45,429 full Maoris, 6632 three-quarter-castes, and 11,306 half-castes. Counted in the European population were 6110 persons, of whom 6Q53 were put down as quarter-castes, 30 Maori-Polynes-sian, 9 Maori-Japanese, and 9 MaoriIndian. The report adds: “There can be little doubt that the blending of the white and Maori race is understated by results obtained through such quantitative methods as those of the census. In 1918 statistics covering 814 men of the Maori Battalion showed that 48 per cent had in some degree European blood. Of 4500 native school children examined in 1922 those having European blood represented 50.1 per cent.

INDEFINITE SURVIVAL UNLIKELY

“Already probably almost one-half of the Maori community is no longer of pure Maori descent, and can never again contribute to the qfiota of pure Maori. The pure Maori remnant must inevitably suffer attrition, as members from time to time marry outside its ranks. Its ranks depleted by exogamous marriages accentuated by the dispersed character of much of the Maori population—a character that future developments will probably emphasise it is very doubtful whether the race can survive the gradual infiltration of. European strains. The analogy of other races in other countries does not lend colour to the theory of indefinite survival, but the somewhat gloomy prophecies of rapid extinction held in past years by such men as Featherston, Hocjistetter, Newman, Butler and Walsh have happily been refuted” The surprisingly large number of Maoris claiming centenary status.comprises eight males and 20 females. r lhe European population, over twenty times as large, recorded only eight males and four females. While the Oldest European recorded himself as 108. years, the oldest Maori recorded the great age of 125, which is understood to be easily the greatest, age ever returned at any census in New Zealand. A feature of the Maori census is the disproportion between males and females, the figures being 911 females to over 1000 males/ - Under the heading “Religious Professions,” the Maori census reveals a remarkable mixture. Church of England adherents number 21,738, Ratana Church 11,567, Roman Catholic 5558, Ringatu (“Hau-Hau”) 4540, Methodist 4066, Mission (“Mihanarc”) 3461, Mormon 3461, and of the others the largest is Presbyterian, 638. Other smaller “churches” include followers of Te Whiti and Te Tohu, Maori Church and the Seven Rules of Jehovah.