children born within late years, the males are more numerous than the
females, in the proportion of 124 to 100. Colonel Marshall accounts for
this fact in the following ingenious manner. Let us for the purpose of
illustration take three families as representing an average of the
entire tribe; say that one mother gives birth to six daughters and no
sons; a second mother has six sons only, whilst the third mother has
three sons and three daughters. The first mother, following the tribal
custom, destroys four daughters and preserves two. The second retains
her six sons. The third kills two daughters and keeps one, as also her
three sons. We have then from the three families, nine sons and three
daughters, with which to continue the breed. But whilst the males
belong to families in which the tendency to produce sons is great, the
females are of those of a converse inclination. Thus the bias
strengthens with each generation, until, as we find, families grow to
have habitually more sons than daughters.
That this result would follow from the above form of infanticide seems
almost certain; that is if we assume that a sex-producing tendency is
inherited. But as the above numbers are so extremely scanty, I have
searched for additional evidence, but cannot decide whether what I have
found is trustworthy; nevertheless the facts are, perhaps, worth
giving. The Maories of New Zealand have long practised infanticide; and
Mr. Fenton (95. Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand: Government
Report, 1859, p. 36.) states that he has met with instances of women
who have destroyed four, six, and even seven children, mostly females.
However, the universal testimony of those best qualified to judge, is
conclusive that this custom has for many years been almost extinct.
Probably the year 1835 may be named as the period of its ceasing to
exist. Now amongst the New Zealanders, as with the Todas, male births
are considerably in excess. Mr. Fenton remarks (p. 30), One fact is
certain, although the exact period of the commencement of this singular
condition of the disproportion of the sexes cannot be demonstratively
fixed, it is quite clear that this course of decrease was in full
operation during the years 1830 to 1844, when the non-adult population
of 1844 was being produced, and has continued with great energy up to
the present time. The following statements are taken from Mr. Fenton
(p. 26), but as the numbers are not large, and as the census was not
accurate, uniform results cannot be expected. It should be borne in
mind in this and the following cases, that the normal state of every
population is an excess of women, at least in all civilised countries,
286