OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF NEW ZEALAND, 1859

The accompanying statistical compilation of the Maori population has been prepared from returns furnished by local collectors, to whom limited districts of enquiry were respectively assigned. The gentlemen employed were selected from among those whose pursuits bring them into constant intercourse with the Native race, and who are therefore best able to acquire the information desired, without exciting jealousy or suspicion.

As the value of these statistics is proportionate to the degree of reliance which they are entitled to, the following remarks are extracted from the reports of the collectors in order to enable the reader to form his own opinion on the subject.

Mr. Halse (Taranaki)—speaks of “the prejudice with which the Natives regard any attempt to form an estimate of their number” as an impediment to the more speedy accomplishment of this task.

The Rev. Mr. Reimenschneider, (Taranaki):—"From my long connexion and intimate acquaintance with the Taranaki tribes I have been enabled to collect the above facts and figures, which I believe to be—more especially as regards the population itself—as true and correct as it can be ascertained. Owing to the very unfavorable prejudice with which the Natives are wont to regard, and to meet anything, on the part of the Government and the Europeans generally, which is calculated to form an estimate of their number and possessions, it is a matter of exceeding great difficulty to obtain a census of them, such as is exact in every point and item."

Mr. Smith, (Auckland):—"The accuracy of these returns (Kaipara, Thames, Manukau, &c.,) may be relied on, the data upon which they are founded having been ascertained with care."With respect to the population of the Rotorua District, he says, “The Rev. C. M. Spencer, who has undertaken to fill up returns for Rotorua and Tarawera, informs me that he has hitherto found it impossible to complete the task, owing, in some measure, to reluctance on the part of the Natives to communicate the requisite information, and also to the fact that the population is scattered and fluctuating.”

Mr. St. Hill, (Wellington, &c.):—"Mr. Buller has been most careful in procuring the requisite information within a radius of about 20 miles from Wellington."

Major Durie, (Wanganui, &c.):—"The information may be depended upon as being as correct as the circumstances will allow."

Mr. Fenton, (Waikato):—"During my enquiries as to the population, I met with less suspicion than I expected, only one tribe entirely refusing information."

Mr. White, (Mongonui, &c.):—"The utmost care in my power has been exercised to insure these returns being as correct as possible. Every settlement has been visited, and, much to my surprise, the information sought has been freely given by the Natives."

Mr. Hamilton, (Canterbury):—"With the exception of the very slight information obtained by myself respecting Arahura, these returns are summaries of a carefully detailed statement prepared by his Honor Mr. Fitzgerald, in which the name of each Maori in the province is shown."

Mr. Wardell, (Turanga, &c.):—"I have used every effort to make these returns complete, but it is a matter of great difficulty to obtain true statistics in matters connected with the Native population, as they are generally suspicious of any enquiries as to their numerical strength or social position, and ill-disposed to afford the necessary information; but I believe the inclosed returns to approximate as near the truth as is possible without a systematic census being taken."

The Rev. Mr. Taylor, (Whanganui and Taupo):—"I have taken the census with very great care, correcting it with previous ones taken at intervals during the last 15 years, and I can therefore vouch for its correctness."

Mr. Johnson, (Wangarei, &c.):—"The returns of population and stock are tolerably accurate."

The remaining enumerators have made no allusion to the accuracy or otherwise of the information supplied by them.

From the foregoing remarks a favourable estimate of the value of the census may be formed. Still it is evident that elements of uncertainty must exist in information, obtained for the most part in a somewhat cursory manner, from a people to whom thought is often an exertion, and who have little idea of the age of even the younger branches of their own families.

The total numbers, male and female, may, I believe, be received without distrust. Those given for the Province of Canterbury are absolutely accurate; those for Nelson and Otago, a close approximation. The statistics of the population of the Provinces of the Northern Islands are also presented as trustworthy, with the exception of those for some portion of Auckland, in which the numbers are merely estimates, and are stated as such.

The division at the age of fourteen into two classes—Adult and Non-Adult—must not be regarded as equally correct, necessarily depending on the varying conjecture of the individual collector, or the still more uncertain fancy of his Native deputy.

The returns, as to the population, are complete, purporting to contain the whole aboriginal population of the colony, (except the Chatham Islands,) but the information as to the amount of stock, and the area of land under native cultivation, is defective and in some cases manifestly erroneous. For instance, at Kaipara Lower, the number of acres in cultivation for wheat, barley, oats, maize, potatoes, and garden, is stated to be 1779; the number devoted to “ other crops” 870. The formation of even an approximate estimate, among unsurveyed lands, is not to be expected.

There is even reason to think, that any comprehensive scheme to obtain precise information on these subjects would, for some years to come, be rendered nugatory by the ignorance and suspicion of the Maori themselves. The operation of these impediments to statistical knowledge has not been unfelt even in England, and offers much greater obstruction to inquiry in New Zealand, where any proceedings having reference to land are viewed with peculiar suspicion. “There is reason to believe,” says Mr. Porter, in his valuable work The Progress of the Nation, “that if any comprehensive measure were adopted by the Government, with a view to ascertain the actual condition of the country, as regards its agriculture, so much jealousy and so many groundless fears would be excited in the minds of the persons from whom the information must be sought, that the returns obtained would be extremely erroneous, or so incomplete as to be of little value.”

The remarks in this memorandum, therefore, are confined to the question of population.

The continuous decrease, in numbers, of the Native race is, I believe, admitted by nearly all those who have had the means of forming an original opinion on the subject.

Before entering upon the question of cause, it may be well to quote the remarks of those census collectors who have offered any opinion as to the fact. The reasons assigned by them in support or explanation of their opinions will be found in a subsequent part of this memorandum

Mr. Heaphy:—"I have long considered that the Maori population was over-estimated as to number, and also that it was fast diminishing. The papers will show that, for the area occupied, it is scanty in the extreme, and that the relative proportion of females to males, and of children to adults, is such as to indicate, as far as the data go, the extinction of the race in a few generations."

Mr. Smith:—"The Ngatiwhakaue tribes are very rapidly on the decrease."

Mr. Kemp, (Bay of Islands):—"A perceptible increase in the population has taken place over many previous years, and the deaths are less frequent."

Mr. Halse:—"I am unable to report in any way favourably of the general condition of the Natives of the New Plymouth District."

The Rev. Mr. Reimenschneider:—"In 1847, the number of souls in this district amounted to no less than 900 and upwards. Their decrease to the present number (588) has resulted from no other cause but mortality. There have been no removals to other parts of the country, but, on the contrary, there has been, more or less, a continued influx of Taranaki Natives, who, at different times and in various parts of the island, have been released from slavery, and have come back and taken their permanent abode here. But for this circumstance, the figures in the above schedule would have been considerable less than they now stand. One-third at least of the whole population adultare men and women, who are under the decay of nature from old age and who gradually disappear. Mortality is keeping on in steady progress among the whole population, but the most striking feature connected with it is, that it predominantly affects and carries off the younger and youngest people of both sexes. In proportion to the number of deaths that occur, the number of births are, (and have been for more than the last ten years,) far too inadequate to counteract the decrease of the numerical strength of this tribe, so as to secure to it (this tribe) a permanent, or even a long-continued existence as such."

The Rev. Mr. Snackenberg:—"They are less sickly than some others, I think, but are, nevertheless, decreasing."

The three last named gentlemen speak of the same district,—that district which has been more peculiarly agitated by intestine commotions, and the attendant distresses, all tending to shorten life. Their opinions can, therefore, be held to have little general value, and must be construed as applicable only to that portion of the country of which they speak.

Mr. Kemp's remark appears to apply merely to the past year, as compared with previous years. The increase must be very great indeed, that can produce perceptible effects in one year

The absence of any previous official census of the Maori population deprives the present enumeration of much of the value that would otherwise belong to it, as affording a certain means of ascertaining the rate at which the people are increasing or decreasing, by comparison with their numbers in previous years. This deficiency has, in some measure, and to a certain extent, been supplied by the kindness of the Reverend Messrs. Maunsell, Ashwell, and Morgan, the resident Church of England Missionaries of the Waikato District, who have furnished the writer with a copy of a very perfect nominal census of the people in that great district, for the year 1844, in which, fortunately, the age of division into adult and non-adult members, is the same as in the census now under consideration. The period of time which has since elapsed, being just 14 years, further simplifies investigation, and affords a very easy proof that all the children, now members of the tribes which these gentlemen numbered, who do not appear in the census of 1844 (immigrants excepted) must be under the age of 14 years.

With a view to remove the doubt which must attend all calculations based upon figures the perfect accuracy of which is not known, and to obviate the uncertainty which must diminish the value of inferences drawn from premises which are not thoroughly established, recourse has been had to the census above named, and the number of deaths and emigrations amongst the persons then enumerated have been ascertained, in certain tribes indiscriminately taken for the purpose, and also the number of births and immigrations, since the enumeration of 1844.

It may be mentioned, that all the tribes selected for this minute examination, occupy very healthy situations, though of varying physical character, and have made no important migrations during the interval of 14 years, with the exception of Ngatikarewa, who have crossed the river, and a few of Ngatikahu and Tekaitutai, who partially reside now at Tuakau. Ngatitahinga and Ngatikarewa, occupying villages near the mouth of the Waikato, are abundantly supplied with saltwater fish, —Ngatitipa obtain a considerable portion of their food from the same source. Ngatikahu and Tekaitutai form parts of a large tribe, Ngatipou, long celebrated for the value of their eel-preserves ; and to the abundance of that food, thence obtained, is attributed the fact, that the members of that tribe are, physically, the largest, and apparently the most healthy, of any Maori in the district. Te Ngaungau, so called from their quarrelsome disposition in former times, inhabit the central plain of Waikato, around Paetai, and, also, obtain large quantities of eels from the adjoining Lake Waikari —Ngati-whauroa reside on the belt of sandy soil, bordering the river, where it passes through the gorge of the Taupiri range of mountains. The Ngatimahuta people the banks of the lower Waipa for twenty miles, following the serpentine course of the river ; and Ngatihinetu and Ngatiapakura are well known as the great wheat-producing tribes cultivating the fertile district around Rangiaohia.

In fact, the food and habits of the people included in this investigation differ in no material matter from those of the great bulk of the aborigines, with the exception that the Rangiohia people commenced at an earlier period the cultivation of wheat, and continue, to a greater extent than most tribes, the consumption of flour as an ordinary article of food.

It will be observed, that several of the male adults of the tribes Ngatikahu and Ngatitipa are recorded as “shot.” These lives were lost at the battle of Te Ihutaroa, in 1846; but the Europeans who then resided near the scene of action, and were in daily intercourse with the people, agree in the opinion that none of the usual evils of a state of war seriously affected the general population, and that the deaths resulting therefrom were, in fact, confined to those which occurred in the field.

Unfortunately, it cannot be alleged, that the presence of deaths by violence, in these statements, will reduce the cases taken to exceptional ones.

These statements are subsequently referred to as Table No. 1.