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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 66

Native Population, North Island

Native Population, North Island.

The North Island is now supposed to contain a Native population of about 42,000, divided into many tribes; but their number is probably very largely over-estimated.

The most important tribe is that of the Ngapuhi, who inhabit the northern portion of the North Island, in the Provincial District of Auckland. It was among the Ngapuhi that the seeds of Christianity and of civilization were first sown, and among them are found the best evidences of the progress which the Maori can make. Forty-five years ago the only town in New Zealand, Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, existed within their territory. Their chiefs, assembled in February, 1840, near the Waitangi ("Weeping Water") Falls, were the first to sign the treaty by which the Maoris acknowledged themselves to be subjects of Her Majesty; and, although under the leadership of an ambitious chief, Honi Heke, a portion of them in 1845 disputed the English supremacy, yet after being subdued by English troops and their Native allies (the Ngapuhi's own kinsmen) they adhered implicitly to the pledges they gave, and since then not a shadow of doubt has been cast on the fidelity of the "loyal Ngapuhi."