Author: Alfred K. Newman
Title: Who are the Maoris?
Description: Whitcombe and Tombs Hardback, 304pp. Newman played a significant role in colonial science, Early papers utilised his medical training to analyse Māori and Pākehā demography. In 1882 he published 'A study of the causes leading to the extinction of the Maori', in which he depicted the race as diseased, depraved and brutal, dying out before the arrival of Europeans. Newman declared the disappearance of the race to be 'scarcely subject for much regret. They are dying out in a quick, easy way, and are being supplanted by a superior race.' His new-found racial conscience was informed partly by his conversion to belief in the myth of the Aryan origins of the Māori, popular in Pākehā anthropological circles. He joined the Polynesian Society in 1906 and, in a substantial book entitled Who are the Maoris? (1912), argued that the 'splendid, charming' Māori race came originally from Northern India and had evolved from Aryan stock, which implied that Māori and Pākehā were long-lost cousins. No DJ. Cloth-covered hardback, gilt lettering; Front endpapers slightly torn, page edges foxed otherwise good. Good.

Keywords: NZ, History


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