The Official Year-books states that each time the census has been taken since 1896 there has been a considerable increase in the number. A similar statement will never be made in connection with any future census, and for the following reason: In former years it was impossible to arrive at anything more than a very casual estimate. The system of enumeration was more or less rough-and-ready, no particular care was taken in the appointment of reliable officers, and Maori information had to be largely relied on. The Maori mode of computation was based on the number of able-bodied men in a hapu or kainga, the women and children being thrown in by a rough guess; and, as the Maoris were somewhat suspicious of the motives of the Government, their returns were often purposely below the mark. As time went on the enumeration was made with increasing accuracy, but it was only on the last occasion that it was made on the lines of the European census—viz., by a systematic house-to-house visitation by properly qualified officials, who were accompanied on their rounds by intelligent and trustworthy Maoris. The rise in the figures. is therefore only due to the increasing accuracy of the returns, numbers being each time included that would have escaped in former calculations. Finality has now been reached, and the next census will show that the Maori population, instead of increasing, has been diminishing all the time, and that if the present rate of declension continues it must soon reach the vanishing-point.