The Descent of Man

gressing. Although it has hitherto been found
impossible to take an actual census of the natives,
their numbers were carefully estimated by
residents in many districts. The result seems
trustworthy, and shows that during the fourteen
years, previous to 1858, the decrease was
19.42 per cent. Some of the tribes, thus carefully
examined, lived above a hundred miles apart,
some on the coast, some inland; and their
means of subsistence and habits differed to a
certain extent (p. 28). The total number in 1858
was believed to be 53,700, and in 1872, after a
second interval of fourteen years, another census
was taken, and the number is given as only
36,359, shewing a decrease of 32.29 per cent!
(41. 'New Zealand,' by Alex. Kennedy, 1873, p.
47.) Mr. Fenton, after shewing in detail the insufficiency
of the various causes, usually assigned
in explanation of this extraordinary decrease,
such as new diseases, the profligacy of the
women, drunkenness, wars, etc., concludes on
weighty grounds that it depends chiefly on the