ARE THE MAORIS DECREASING?

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 44, 5 April 1884, Page 5

ARE THE MAORIS DECREASING?

["OTAGO DAILY TIMES," 23RD FEBRUARY.] ' At the annual meeting of the Philosophical P Society in Wellington, Dr. Buller, C.M.G., F.R.S., gave an address in which he deali with the above question. He pointed ouf \ that a defect in the Transactions oftheNeu Zealand Institute was the extreme paucity of articles relating to the Maori inhabitants . of the country, their manners and customs 1 and traditions, their habits of life, their , treatment of the sick, burial of the dead, '. and so forth. The ethnologist of the future : will naturally look to the Transactions^ for reliable information on all these points. Newspaper literature is ephemeral, and not always reliable; but from the fact that every paper is vouched for the name of the author is some sort of guarantee that none but well 'authenticated facts will be found in the pages of the Transactions. Looking to the fact that the Maori race was dying out very lapidly, that in all probability five and twenty years hence there would only be a remnant left, it was of the first importance, from an ethnological or ethnographical point of view, to collect and preserve, while yet there was opportunity, a faithful history of so interesting a people. He (Dr. Buller) had often heard Maoris themselves speculate on their speedy extinction, saying in a melancholy way that as the Norwegian had destroyed the native rat, and as the indigenous birds and shrubs were being supplanted by the introduced ones, .so surely would the Maori disappear before the pakeha. And this was no mere fancy. The abnormal condition of the population— the females far outnumbering the males — was the surest indication of national decay. Every successive enumeration of the people told its sad tale, and the decrease mu&t of necessity go on in a progressive ratio. In Cook's time the Maori population was estimated af 100,000, and at the period of oui first colonisation of the islands at 70,000, [ and his own opinion was that at the present ' day they do not number — men, women, and [ children — more than 30,000. He knew oi r districts swarming with Maoris in former years now depopulated. He had known \ whole hap us disappear, and he had seen ' an entire family die out in the course of a ! year. Twenty years ago he was stationed as Native Resident Magistrate at Manawatu, and he had then under his nominal control ' and management some 2,500 Maoris. It ' would be difficult now within the same dis- ; trict to find as many hundreds. In 1856 he [ was present at Rangitikei when Dr. Feather- • ston pnid over the purchase money of the ; Manawatu block, amounting to Jt'25,000, ' and there were some 1,500 natives present. It was proposed to pay over to the natives, in a month's time, double that amount for the Otamakapua block, and he doubted whether in the same district 300 hundred will be brought together for that purpose, even counting the Hawke's Bay contingent ! Last week he was at Otaki, and took some visitors to the Maori church. There, where formerly about 1,000 natives assembled to the ministrations of Archdeacon Hadfield (our present bishop), it seemed now difficult to fill the front seats. In the settlement itself — veritably a "deserted village" — where formerly there were hundreds, it would be hard now to find scores ; and, in answer to inquiries on all hands, the response is "Kua mate." And in this connection he mentioned a curious feature in the mortality of the race — namely, that the children and middle-aged people ar6 the first to succumb, the old stock, "who appear better able to resist the new order of things, generally holding out the longest. That the race was doomed he had no doubt whatever in his own mind. What had happened in other parts of the world must inevitably happen, and indeed is happening, here. The aboriginal race must in time give place to a more highly organised, or, at any rate a more civilised one. Tin? seemed to be one of the inscrutable laws of Nature. And, if true to our watchword of progress —social, intellectual, and physical— ho could scarcely believe that even the most earnest philo-Maori would deplore the change. He had often reflected on an observation ot the late Dr. Feathcrstou on their first meeting just 2S years ago: — " The Maoris (said lie) are dying out, and nothing can save them. Our plain duty, as good, compassionate colonists, is to .smooth doim fltcir rfi/imj pillow. Then history will have nothing to reproach us whh." Accepting these facts, Dr. Buller insisted on its being the absolute duty of the society to collect materials for the future historian of the race. He said he had gone carefully through the 15 volumes of Transactions, and out of more than a thousand articles on a variety of subjects only three dozen had any leference whatever to this subject. Mr Waterhouse said he had listened with great pleasure to the address, but he was surprised to hear so decided an opinion expressed as to the rapid decline of the Maori people. He thought this view was scarcely borne out by the official statistics ; but that, on the contrary, the Maoris throughout the country were rather on the increase. The census returns might be accepted as relatively correct, and it appeared to him, from an examination of those returns, that there was a larger per-centage of children among the Maoris than among the French. If true, this would go to prove that the Maoris were really on the increase. The subject was one of great interest, and he was glad to hear from Dr. Buller that he intended during the coming year to contribute some papers to the Transactions, because there was probably no one more competent to deal with the matter. Dr. Newman said he entirely agreed with the President. He had himself on a previous occasion expressed his belief, at a "meeting of the Society, that the Maoris numbered only 35,000. He thought Dr. Buller was probably right in placing the number somewhat lower. On all hands were proofs of decrease, especially in the Hawke's Bay district, with which he had been more intimately connected. He had no faith in census roturns. Even Mr Bryco had told him that these enumerations could not be relied on, as every chief was anxious to make his following appear as large as possible. Dr. Hector said it could not be denied that this very important subject had hitherto been neglected. He entirely concurred in the views put forward by Dr. Buller in regard to the Maori race. The census returns were quite delusive, as he had satisfied himself by careful inquiries in various parts of the country, and he gave the meeting several instances in point, As to the urgent necessity for collecting a history of the Maori people, he was quite in accord with the President ; and would suggest that the minutes of the evidence in the Native Land Court should be carefully preserved, on account of the historical information they contained. Mr Hart and Captain Frasor expressed the opinion that the Maori race were not decreasing. Dr. Buller said, in general reply, that his conclusions were not based on the evidence of any particular locality, but were drawn from a pretty extensive knowledge of the various native districts. He had instanced the Otaki district because it was at our very doors. But other districts with which he was equally familiar— Koipora in

the far North, Waikato, Rotorifo, ti&iifao, Wanganui, &c— all told the a&me melancholy tale. These districts were populous when he first knew them, and now the natives might be counted by dozens where formerly there were hundreds. As to Maori census returns, they were mere approximations, and very often misleading, as he could state from personal experience. He was much struck with the rapid mortality as disclosed also by native titles ; and he mentioned several instances within his own professional knowledge where, in a certificate of title containing originally from 60 to 100 names, from 10 to 15 per cent, had died off in an incredibly short space of time. Amalgamation of races had been talked of, but this would not save the M aoris. The half castes were undoubtedly a line people physically, but he had noticed that when they married back into the Maori race the offspring had no stamina, and seldom reached maturity. He quite agreed with Dr. Hector about the value of the Land Court evidence, if carefully arranged and collated. He had succeeded once in interesting Judge Fenton on this point, and circulars were then addressed to the various judges, asking them to hand over their note-books for public record, but he had never heard the result. For his own part for 20 years past he had been carefully preserving everything of the kind.