MACRI POPULATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12089, 18 August 1917, Page 9

MACRI POPULATION.

CENSUS TOTAL OF 49,776. SLIGHT DECREASE ANNOUNCED. The total Maori population, according to the census taken in October last, was 49.776. A paper presented to Parliament, this week by the. Native Minister states that since 1001 the figures show an increase until the last census, when a decrease of sixty-eight, as compared with 1911, is shown. "How far tho figures on thi K occasion arc affected by enlistments,'* states the Minister " i't is difficult to say accurately, but they must bo affected to some extent. Tho enumerators for the North island. Taranaki, and particularly the. Waikato districts, report that some difficulty was experienced in obtaining in formation, owing to tho fear on the part of tho Natives'that tho statistics, \roro being obtained for the purpose of recruiting." T]\q enumerators generally report that, with the exception of the smallpox epidemic in 1913, and some cases of typhoid, the health of tho Natives ha" been generally good, and that in most districts thero lias been continued improvement in the habits of life and industry of the Maoris, especially in districts where land is being opened up and settlement advancing, giving greater opportunities of employment, etc. On the whole, the reports may be regarded as indicating satisfactory progress, hut there is still much scone for inrnrov."--mont. The census,for the Pontli Island was taken with tho European census on this occasion, as tho Natives and halfcastes there are regarded as living as Europeans.