In order to test the physical and muscular strength of the Maori, Dr. Thompson made them lift the utmost weights they could from the ground, with the following results from 31 individuals on whom he experimented:—
| 6 | New Zealanders | lifted | 410 | to | 420 | lbs. |
| 2 | " | " | 400 | " | 410 | " |
| 5 | " | " | 390 | " | 400 | " |
| 3 | " | " | 380 | " | 390 | " |
| 6 | " | " | 360 | " | 380 | " |
| 5 | " | " | 340 | " | 360 | " |
| 2 | " | " | 336 | " | ||
| 2 | " | " | 250 | " | 266 | " |
The average of the foregoing gives 367 lbs., the highest being 420 lbs., the lowest 250 lbs. A similar experiment made with 31 soldiers of the 58th regiment (averaging in weight 144 lbs.) gave the following figures:—
| 2 | soldiers | lifted | 504 | lbs. | |||
| 6 | " | " | 460 | " | to | 480 | lbs. |
| 14 | " | " | 400 | " | " | 460 | " |
| 9 | " | " | 350 | " | " | 400 | " |
Thus the average weight which the British soldiers could lift from the ground was 422 lbs., or 55 lbs. more than the Maori.
Perron in his "Voyage des Découvertes aux Terres Australes," observed as the result of numerous experiments, that the weakest Frenchman had more muscular strength than the most powerful native of Van Diemen's Land, and that the weakest Englishman was stronger than the strongest native of New Holland. Judging by that standard, the Maories are of a far more powerful build than the Australian aborigines.
What appears to us most interesting in the results of Dr. Thomson's observations, is the immense disparity of the muscular strength of the Maori as compared with that of the Anglo-Saxon race, although in height, weight, and girth they so closely resemble them. The main reason of this astonishing dissimilarity is undoubtedly due in the main to the exclusively vegetable diet of the New Zealanders, which it is well known promotes the deposition of fat in the system, without proportionately increasing the amount of muscular tissue.
Moreover the uniform, uneventful life of the Maories by no means tends to the development of muscular strength.
Dr. Thomson justly remarks that the foregoing facts completely demolish the arguments of those who find a pleasure in representing the world as degenerating, and mankind as much less powerful and free from blemish than in former ages, ere trade and civilization had exercised their unpropitious influence upon the habits and manners of mankind. For here we have the New Zealanders, living up to the present century a life of the most primitive simplicity, yet evidently in respect of mere corporeal strength lagging far behind the denizens of a country, where culture and machinery have brought about social changes of such magnitude, as no other civilized people on the globe can show.