Increased Percentage of the Young.

We are apt to think that, as the older type of Maori passes away, so the race is decreasing, and the census increase is not real. There can be no doubt that large villages, populous within the memory of people of fifty years of age, have diminished in size and population. Whilst the decrease has in some cases continued up to the present time, in a majority of cases the increase in the last twenty years has been real. Through individualization of land the communistic village life is being broken up, and settlements have a scattered and sparse appearance as compared with the past. It is only when, the tribes rally to the village meeting-house for some tribal object that a real idea can be formed of the numbers that are scattered on individual holdings. The increase in the number of children is shown by the increased problem of accommodation in Native schools. The following table shows the steady increase that has been taking place in the percentage of children in the whole population:—