Year: 1879

The native difficulty in New Zealand


agoin calls the attention to the fast


dwiudling Maori people, one Of the most


remarkable races Of sayages with which


Europeans have been brought in con.


tact, The race will vanish because


there are not enough children born to
supply the gaps caused by death. 1t is


curious fact that this tendency to die


out, observable in so many savage races,


does not depend upon their capacity for


civilization, nor even upon their willing


ness to abandon tho life of hunters and


to cultivate the soil. Certain branches


Of the human race have robust vitality,


rendering them capable of withstanding


any change in their condition of life,


and causing them to send up fresh shoots


like hardy plans, under tho most disad-


vantageous conditions. OF such races


are the African negros, who cannot be


eXterminated, and who are increasing in


all countries to which they have been


brought as slaves as to threaten in some
instances to swamp entirely the white
and colored population. The Kaffirs,


Hlso, when brought under British rule in


such colony as Natal, show distinct


tendency to increase Other races lack


ing the robust vitality pine away and


die. The Caribs Of the West Indies,


once numbering many millions have


vanished, leaving only faint trace here


and there Of petty communities formed


by escaped negro slaves who married


Carib women, The allied races in Cen


tral and South America have also dwin-


died at rate which cannot be accounted
for by any amount of war and massacre.


The sentence of death which seems to lie


on whole branches of the human race
appears to issue from the action ofsome
unknown physical law, and not be aver
tible by any improvement in their con-
dition. We have a striking Illustration
of this law under our actual observation.
Leaving out Of consideration our own
aborigines, it is evident that the whole
Polynesian race is liable to succumb un-
der the same mysterious blight that de,
stroy ed the Caribs. AS q people they
are remarkably ready to accept the les
sons Of civilization, not merely with the
parrot,like acquiescence of the American
negro, but with intelligent appreciation
of men who understand what they learn.
The Maoris illustrate our meaning,
but the Hawaiians give o more strik-
ing instance of it. The short history Of
this interesting little people since Capt.
Cook discovered their group Of islands
discloses an adaptability never before


displayed by any community; no such
complete change from utter savagedom
has ever been made in so short space
Of time, and in no other instance has q
race taken the initiative in self-improve.
ment in so marked manner. Yet the
civilized Hawaiians are dying out as


swiftly and surely as the more barbarous
Maoris That school of social philoso-
pliers which is so often and 80 greatly
troubled by the probable future over
crowding of human beings on the face


of the globe does not give sufficient at
tention to the rapid process of depopula-
ton which in one quarter Of the world
equals the increase in another.
Yet we may be allowed an occasional
short pause in the hymn Of self-laudation
which we are eternally chanting, in
order to consider for moment the fate
of the millions Of our fellow creatures
who are whitening and dying away be-


fore our boastful advance more partic-


ularly as the process in Queensland is
accompanied bv so very little trouble AID


expense.-Br Brisbane, England, Courier.