Among all the elevating influences brought to bear upon the Maoris, the means of education appears to be the most promising; and if they succeed in avoiding the fate of extinction, to which so many savage tribes seem doomed when brought in contact with a higher civilisation, education will be the chief agent in bringing about the happy result. With the advance of education, it may reasonably be hoped that the Maoris—who are naturally a very receptive people—may be brought to see the evils of consanguineous marriages, to adopt more rational sanitary measures both as regards their children and themselves. At present, they have very erroneous and mischievous ideas of disease. When an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out among some of them recently, they were utterly regardless of the danger of infection, and ridiculed the idea of taking any precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease, saying it was not fever, but simply a Maori complaint brought on by _makutu_ or witchcraft. When a native is attacked by illness, he frequently succumbs through sheer fright. It may easily be imagined how these facts increase the mortality of the race, and what improvement may be effected in these respects by the advancement of education. It is satisfactory to note that the government are alive to the importance of the subject. According to a recent official Return, it appears that there were sixty-nine native schools in full working order, and over two thousand Maori children receiving the elements of a good English education. The great advantage of these schools, it has been very well pointed out, is not so much that the young people learn to speak the English language, but that they learn to appreciate our customs, to value time, and to gain a desire for improvement, both mental and social, which, doubtless, they will transmit to their descendants, who will then become fitted to hold a fair position in the future. The natives generally appear to be alive to these facts, and not only send their children to the schools, but give sites for school-buildings, and show their interest in the movement in other ways. They elect their School Committees in the same way that the Europeans do, and on the whole do the work very well. The Blue Ribbon movement appears to have taken a singularly firm hold among the race. The so-called ‘king’ himself donned the badge with great ceremony at the solicitation of Sir George Grey, before leaving for England in 1884; and in every village are to be seen numbers of the young Maori ‘braves’ wearing the ‘bit of blue’ as among the most cherished of their decorations.