THE MAORIS’ FIGHT FOR LIFE.
BY A NEW ZEALANDER.
An absorbing struggle is going on in New Zealand at present—a struggle of life and death to a gallant and interesting people. The Maoris are apparently making a last stand for existence. Like all savage peoples, they have hitherto been ‘melting away’ at the approach of the whites, until now it is believed they number barely forty thousand throughout the entire colony; whereas in 1835, before English colonisation had commenced in earnest, careful observers estimated that nearly two hundred thousand natives ranged the woods and navigated the rivers and seas of the colony. Captain Cook, probably less accurately, placed his estimate at four hundred thousand. Certain it is that from the time we have first known them, the Maoris, like the Kanakas of the South Sea Islands and the Red Indians of North America, have gone on steadily and even rapidly diminishing in numbers. Just now there is reason to hope that this process of extinction has received a check, and the race seems gathering together all its energies to make one last struggle for existence. Will it be successful?
In the first place, let us glance at the causes leading to the extinction of the aboriginals of New Zealand. These have been very ably set forth in a paper read before the Wellington Philosophical Society by Dr Newman, President of the Society. This gentleman is of opinion that the Maoris were a disappearing race before the English came to New Zealand. One of the principal causes is the natural sterility of the people. While the birth-rate among the European inhabitants of New Zealand is the highest in the world, and while the prolificness of animal life generally in this fertile land is a matter of constant wonder to the naturalist, a birth in a Maori family is, as a rule, of less frequent occurrence than a death; and the absence of children in the native villages is absolutely startling to those who have just seen the troops of rosy-cheeked youngsters that swarm in the European towns. There are various causes for this unfruitfulness of the race; but the principal source assigned by the writer I have quoted is intermarrying, the Maoris being nearly always married either in their own or some nearly adjacent tribe. The rate of mortality, also, is considerably higher among Maoris than with Europeans, consumption being responsible for the greatest ravages in their ranks. The Maoris, who formerly lived in lofty, well-aired, and well-drained hill-forts, now dwell on the oozy soil of the valleys, where the air is stagnant and moisture-laden, while their whares or huts are close and unventilated—forming, in fact, hotbeds of lung disease and rheumatism.
Dr Ginders, the medical officer at the government sanatorium at Rotorua, which is situated in the middle of a large native district, gives, in a Report recently presented to parliament, a graphic and at the same time horrifying account of ‘How the Maoris live.’ Referring to their sleeping-huts, he says: ‘Being curious to know something of these hotbeds of disease, I entered one at seven A.M. before the occupants had turned out. I have no wish to repeat the experience. This was quite a small family affair, fifteen feet long by ten feet wide. It contained twenty individuals of both sexes and all ages, who had spent the night—say ten hours—in it. The cubic air-space per head was about such as would be afforded by a comfortable full-sized coffin. How they can exist under such circumstances is one of the mysteries of Maori nature. Fortunately for them, these sleeping-places are built of pervious material, through which the outer air must filter, and all the more rapidly from the fact of the great difference of temperature between the external and internal air.’
After reading this extract, most people will be inclined to say that it is not necessary to look any further for the cause of the gradual dying out of the Maoris. It is some satisfaction to reflect that the imported diseases and vices are playing only a minor part in decimating the race. Of the diseases introduced by Europeans, typhoid and measles seem to have been the most destructive, especially the former. The only imported vice, according to Dr Newman, that has in the least degree helped to hasten the disappearance of the race is drunkenness. The mortality among children, from the neglect or ignorance of parents and the insanitary conditions in which they live, is appalling, and until something can be done to check it, any hope of preserving the race must of course be abandoned. The advent of Europeans has undoubtedly brought with it many causes likely to operate unfavourably on their dark-skinned brethren. Some of these have already been mentioned, drink unquestionably occupying a bad pre-eminence.
There is also no doubt among medical men that a partial adoption of European habits and customs, accompanied by a retention of various features in their barbarous mode of living, is the cause of much sickness and even mortality. Dr Newman points out one very characteristic fact: formerly, when the natives entered their whares with their wet mats on, they flung them aside; now, when they get wet in their European clothing, they keep it on, thus laying the foundation of many diseases. On the other hand, civilisation has introduced undoubted benefits. For example, the Maoris formerly subsisted on fern-root and such hard fare, and found that difficult to get at times. Now, they have an abundance of wholesome food, and can live in comfort on the revenue derived from their lands, if they do not spend their money in debauchery. As the result of the labours of the West Coast Royal Commission, for instance, every native in the confiscated territory in the North Island who has any right to be there, now has an interest in some reserve or other which will provide him with a settled homestead and the means of maintenance, and in many cases a considerable pecuniary income besides. Naturally, in not a few instances these material advantages are demoralising to the Maoris, who, when able to live in independence and luxury, will not work.
Many of them, however, especially on the east coast and in the north, are devoting themselves industriously to such occupations as sheep-farming, maize-planting, tobacco-growing, &c. I read, in the Reports of the native officers, that one tribe started farming with a flock of four thousand sheep, and divided the year’s profits, which actually amounted to seven hundred pounds. Another party of natives did better still at whale-fishing, securing spoil from the deep to the extent of two thousand six hundred pounds.
Among all the elevating influences brought to bear upon the Maoris, the means of education appears to be the most promising; and if they succeed in avoiding the fate of extinction, to which so many savage tribes seem doomed when brought in contact with a higher civilisation, education will be the chief agent in bringing about the happy result. With the advance of education, it may reasonably be hoped that the Maoris—who are naturally a very receptive people—may be brought to see the evils of consanguineous marriages, to adopt more rational sanitary measures both as regards their children and themselves. At present, they have very erroneous and mischievous ideas of disease. When an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out among some of them recently, they were utterly regardless of the danger of infection, and ridiculed the idea of taking any precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease, saying it was not fever, but simply a Maori complaint brought on by makutu or witchcraft. When a native is attacked by illness, he frequently succumbs through sheer fright. It may easily be imagined how these facts increase the mortality of the race, and what improvement may be effected in these respects by the advancement of education.
It is satisfactory to note that the government are alive to the importance of the subject. According to a recent official Return, it appears that there were sixty-nine native schools in full working order, and over two thousand Maori children receiving the elements of a good English education. The great advantage of these schools, it has been very well pointed out, is not so much that the young people learn to speak the English language, but that they learn to appreciate our customs, to value time, and to gain a desire for improvement, both mental and social, which, doubtless, they will transmit to their descendants, who will then become fitted to hold a fair position in the future. The natives generally appear to be alive to these facts, and not only send their children to the schools, but give sites for school-buildings, and show their interest in the movement in other ways. They elect their School Committees in the same way that the Europeans do, and on the whole do the work very well.