Settlers outnumber Māori
- When
- 1858
- Reach
- Nationwide
For the first time the European population passed the Māori population — about 59,000 settlers to 56,000 Māori, on a Māori population that had roughly halved since 1800.
Introduced disease did most of this. Influenza, measles, tuberculosis and dysentery moved through communities with no prior exposure, and the Musket Wars and land loss compounded it. Māori numbers kept falling until the 1890s, bottoming out near 42,000, while settler numbers doubled every decade. The demographic crossover changed the political arithmetic of every land question that followed.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
Related
New Zealand Constitution Act
Representative government arrived, divided into six provinces — and the property franchise excluded almost all Māori, who held land communally.
Vogel’s public works and immigration scheme
Julius Vogel borrowed £10 million in London to build railways, roads and telegraph lines, and to bring 100,000 assisted migrants.
The provinces are abolished
Nine provincial governments were swept away and replaced by central government plus counties and boroughs — the shape of local government for the next century.
Education Act — free, secular and compulsory
A national primary system, free and compulsory for children aged 7 to 13, and deliberately secular to sidestep sectarian argument.