DESTINY OF THE MAORI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18223, 17 October 1922, Page 9

DESTINY OF THE MAORI.

ABSORPTION BY WHITES. LESSONS FROM STATISTICS. ADDRESS BY DR. BUCK. "The Passing of the Maori" was the subject of an address given by Dr. P. H. "Buck at the meeting of the Auckland \ Institute last evening. The Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson, presided, and there was a lanre attendance. The title of bis address, Dr. Buck said, seemed to have a very sad and mournful sound about it. However, according to opinions expressed in the past-, some by speakers before the Auckland Institute, the Maoris should already have passed. In 18S1 Dr. Newman said "the passing of the Maori race is scarcely a subject for ranch regret." Sir Walter Buller in 1884 said: "The Maori race, is dying out rapidly, and in all probability there will be only a remnant left 25 years hence." As a matter of fact, the Maori population at the end of the 25 years showed an increase of 18.000. As recently as 1907 Archdeacon Walsh said: "The Maori raco is sick unto death, and is already potentially dead." All Dr. Buck could say about that was that it was a good, healthy corpse. (Laughter.) ITie effect of the changed climate and environment that followed the migration of the Maoris from Polynesia was touched upon by the speaker, who said the conditions in New Zealand were totally different. The newcomers had to labour as they had never laboured before. Gone was the comfortable inertia of their former life. Passing on to the coming of Europeans into this country. Dr. Buck said that as a consequence the Maoris gradually acquired a new culture and now conditions of life.. There was a great decrease in their numbers, but he was convinced the destruction had now been stayed, and that the condition of the Maoris would improve, assimilating the white people's standard of life, until there would be no distinction between the two races. (Applauss.) Increase in Numbsr of Children. Interesting figures in regard to the Maori population were qvoted by Dr. Buck. The number of children was a sure guide to the condition of the race, and statistics showed that instead of decreasing it had increased. In 1891 the proportion of children under 15 years of age to the total population was 34.1 per cent. In 1906 it was 58.6 per cent., and last year it stood at 40 per cent. This indicated that the race was in a healthier condition and it was supported by the increase in the number of females, the previous disproportion in the sexes having been advanced as a reason why the race should become extinct. In 1891 there were 832 females to every 1000 males, while in 19.11 there were *882, and last year 890. In 94 native schools, of 4039 pupils, there were 2089 males and 1950 females, making 935 females to 1000 males. Though the Maori population had teen increasing it did not follow that the Maori would continue to exist as a separate people. The European population was increasing at a greater rate and the Maori was becoming sparser and sparser, as it were, in the population of the country. This external dilution wns shown by the fact tha«- whereas in 1891 there were 14.9 Europeans to one Maori, in 1921 there were 23-8- Then there was internal dilution from the introduction of European blood. The census returns showed the number of half-castes living as Maoris and living as Europeans. Not having the number of half-castes living as Europeans for the 1921 census be had taken the 1916 census, and this gave 3529 half-castes living as Maoris and 3221 living art Europeans. the latter to the Maori census and taking the total of 6750 half-rastes as a percentage of the added-to Maori population the proportion of half-castes worked out at 12.7 per cent. The Intermingling of Blcod. Tnis did not give the amount of blood dilution, as many with white blood were counted as full Maoris. In the Maori Pioneer Battalion, ou the returning troopr,biD in 1919, out of 814 men examined, 424, or 52 per cent., were found to be full Maori, and 390, or 48 per cent., had white blood. Out of 4039 pupils in 94 native schools 2016, or 49.9 per cent., were-full Maori, and 2032, or 60.1 per cent-, had white blood. The pupils with white blood were distributed as foTows :— Three-fourths Maori, 1097, or 27.1 per ceafc.; two-fourths Maori, 457, or 11.3 per cent.; one-fourth Maori, 127, or 3.1 per cent.: other fractions, 342, or 8.4 per cent. There was, the speaker said in conclusion, no iiien »of the Maori ponulation immediate!* becoming extinct. Figures were against that. They showed, however, that there was a far greater inter-mixture of white blood than was often imagined. The Maori*race, he thought, would ~ass away gradually into the New Zealander of the future. No race like the Maori could exist in a country such as New Zealand, with the great, preponderance of white people- Extinction was not the fate, of the Maori, but absorption was his destiny. (Applause.)