WHY IS THE MAORI POPULATION DECREASING?

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1341, 24 June 1859, Page 3

WHY IS THE MAORI POPULATION DECREASING?

"Ws.shqwed in a.recent article that the Maori race is fast dirninishiug, and : now propose to consider the-causes which are ;assigned, in Mr.'Fejnon's work.as teiicl■ipg.to this result. The comnieucemeut of this retrograde ' change in the numbers of the people, seems to be of com' iparatively recent dato. It is generally supposed to have taken place about tho year 1830, and was first brought under public notice by the lale Bishop Broug?i- ---• toi), who made enquiries into the subject nineteen years .since.. It is; ihereiore, eatiefactdry to know that it was not occasioued by colonization, which did not occur until , 1840;' the white residents prior to that date being.'insignificant'iti numbere, and.;sparsely located., This fact entirely does away with the theory that it is the red /man's destiny,to fade before the'■presence, of the European; but strengthens a reasonto which oonsiderable.prominence is .given by Mr. Fenton,—the want of fresh' blood. •''...

" One other cause of depopulation suggests I itself to the mind of (be writer—the constant intermixture of blood during the, twenty generations that the Maories ■ have occupied this country. In the ranks of the lower animals, it is Jinown, that , breeding ", in and in" for two or three generations is'quite sufficient to take frorri the race-horse his speed, from.,the game-cock his courage and 'activity,, fiom the dog his strength,and from all their-, health and energy. Does' not the,same.,natural law govern the human speciesr , , ':■-■-.■■■ " '■ " How completely and constantly this bandfnl of people hare intermingled, may he judged. from Appendix 8., in which the names of many well-known chiefs of tribes, now far separated and sometimes hostile, may be recognized as relatives of each other, and in-fact forming one large family. The scheme might easily, be-;ex- '■' tended until the entire population was included. Had the various intermarriages been added, a perfectly intermixed plun of consanguinity Would have been- siicU is the condition of the aristocracy, how constantly and! intimately the ■ persons'of inferior rank must nave interfused whose opportunities of marryinj* were usually confined to llieir own tribe." . ■ -Mr. fleaphy, one of the Census enumerators, who enters into the question more fuliy than any of the others, suggest the same idea. "While aware of our duty in administering to the well-being, of the Maori, and guarding nimagumst those diseases and evils that must tend to depopulate.Vone, cannot' overcome the conviction that the race is "run but," and that aiu-r twoi or. three.generations, a remnant only Will represent the.people. Has isolation been we cause'?.. I..am not aware that the fact of ; . al ' lml being the (populated) island most remote in the world from, any other populated

coiintry.hiisatiracted the attention of naturalists. May an infusion of; fresh blood not be necessary to ; rbstore prolificacy ?- ..Amoiijnit the Is-. ]iind,uf Melanesia, where communication from gi<>U|> to group's easy, tho .villages teem with .children, and young mothers, with several young children; hanging about them, are met continually, notwithstanding the cflVuts of disease and the insecurity of perpetual warfare." It seems-admitted o , ) all hands, both by Maories and Europeans, tliiit ; the unproductiveness of the women is the chief cause at. the decreased population, and yet large families result from their unions with white . men, even when preceded by an irregular life in the iieighbour- ■ huod of the towns. An instance is given where the half-caste children of a few white settlers exceed in number, those of the Maori trihe among .whom they\ live, and it is patent to every, settler that a '.', full quiver" is the ordinary result of mixed,marriages. 'The " breeding in and in" theory, .has certainly much to support it. , : . • .■:.• ' ',

.-;;■ A- second...cause' is assigned by Mr. Fenton; He states that about the period when the population began to retiograde, the art of manufacturingpntrid corn hy steeping in winter, was adopted. -Erom that date, this food was regularly eaten in a most offensive state uf putrescence, and as shown by extracts from Liebig"s " Animal Chemistry," this course must have been productive, of; a large ambut of disease! The use of inferior food is more' particularly a fruitful; source of' Scrofula,- anil ibis disease, " developing itself in various form ;—tumours, tubes meserit," and consumption ijnd otlier long diseases," besides a-gniierp.l prostration of vital energy both mentaland pbysicalhas been, and is, the great destructive agent that has made such frightful inroads into the numbers of the Maori people. In fact, the Maori constitution appears to he rotten. A slight attack of illness, which would scarcely detain tbe ; .European from his ordinary occupations, strikes down the Maori, and the prostration is so complete that permanent recovery is the exception. Will not: the; saturation of the . whole system with this feurfiil. disease solve also, in some measure, the problem of the unptolificness of the females, an eqiial share in the want of vigour being ascribed from the same cause to the males?"

Various other causes are suggested, but none of them are in themselves sufficient to show why. the Maories, 'inhabiting a country where the climate .is salubrious beyond a parellelj should not rather exhibit an increase in their numbers at the, highest rate of which the human race, under the most favorable circumstances, is capable. . - ■. ! ' These causes are the Rtloption pf European food, clothing and habits The Maori laments" that his appetite is noibnge?""wl]u't it was when in a comparative state of nudity when his , skin* thickened 'and' rendered him insensible to the effects of beat and cohl. In those days, when fern reot and the rout of the wild convolvolus were the staple articles, of diet, the Native affirms his physical strength, was great and his' health unbroken ; but this feeling appears to he the same as that which obtains among su mjiuy in other countries, who lament that" the fufiner days were better than these." Tlie fact, that that the decadence bad commenced and bad produced very sensible effects before these supposed causes of disease came into operation, must form, an insuperable obstacle to ; the logical maintenance .of tbe position'that the decrease is attributable to the adoption; of European food, clothing and habits.

Depopalation by wars, infanticide, want of chastity, cleaiiliness.and intemperance,may be similarly disposedof, as since the colonisation of . the Islauds very few deaths fiuir wars have Uikeri place and.infanticide is if not entirely unknown. ' Chastity is fur more prevalent than in former times and cleanliness must certainly be on the advance wherever the pas' have' been' broken up and wooden houses tuken .die..pluce, of the filthy and unwholesome whare.s. -'The i>i temperance of the Maori is only and not habitual, and is not of a uharuutcr to jiroduce any such immediate results as tnose lo whicfi our auentioii is (lirouteO. '■.-.

Equally unsa-tisfnetory will be an enquiry ii) to-the'effects'of "diseases 'introduced by- tlie Europeans. The suiall. pox-has not made its appearance in New Zealand, and the inea.sles, ■which have uniy'once passed uve'r tlie "couiuiT, was equally fatal-to t the.wliitps. ,■ Swofulaoiulie other hand is of a most fatal character,* and as before iemurked,.manifests itself in a jjveat variety of forms. But , 'it is not..among tbe causes of mortality in tbe adult'that the decadence' is to be looked for, so much as in the want of productiveness in the females and- the - unuealthiness of the'children..

Mr. Fenton, suggests as a remedy, that. the. Government should afford every facility for the separate and permanent location ofmaori fiunilies on'landfor 'which they should.have uCrowu Grant Title. But suc'j a seems to leave % the root of the lhatter wholly uutouuhed. An amalgamation with some uther nice.appears ,to be the only remedy that.wtmld lead to v reversal of the present downward progrees of, the niaori population. . :