These, however, are exceptions, and not the rule. We have Maori members both of the Upper and Lower House who are a pattern to some other legislators in many respects, and can take their place in any European society. We have Maori clergymen both Anglican and Wesleyan who appear to make pastors of the most exemplary kind. There is as yet no Maori lawyer in practice, but some native lads are being trained in solicitors’ offices, and there is every prospect of their naturally keen wits enabling them to take a good position in the profession. So far as I am aware, they are not ambitious of becoming doctors; and some malicious people may be cruel enough to suggest that as regards the longevity of the race this is rather an advantage than otherwise. Some of them are being trained to trades; and it is suggested by the organising inspector that every boy, after he has gone through the village school course, should, if his parents wish it, be apprenticed to some trade by the government, so as to insure his obtaining a proper industrial training. With the Maoris grounded in a proper knowledge of social and sanitary laws, with their moral and intellectual instincts properly guided and cultivated, there seems yet to be a hope that the prophecy so often made, that the race must speedily die out, may be falsified. This is the opinion of a medical man to whom I have already referred. In his Report to the native Minister, Dr Ginders, after mentioning the prevalent diseases among the Maoris, says: ‘In my opinion, the production, and severity, and the spread of these diseases are determined by two main factors: first, the influence of the _wharepuni_ (sleeping-hut), and secondly, the consumption of putrid food. Compared with these two gigantic evils, alcohol is nowhere. Were there no _wharepunis_, I believe the Maori would be a successful rival of his European neighbour in sobriety and industry; but with his blood vitiated by the foul air of these hotbeds of disease, he has neither strength nor inclination to work, and it would be odd, indeed, if he had no craving for stimulants. I am inclined to credit the _wharepuni_ with more than half the infant mortality. Not only is the child injured directly by this devitalising influence, but indirectly through the mother, whose milk is diminished in quantity and impoverished in quality by the same cause. I believe the growing intelligence of the rising generation of Maoris has already checked the rapid decadence of the race. I believe, too, that these evils will gradually die out, and we shall find the native population increasing _pari passu_.’ New Zealand at the present time, it will be seen, has a grand opportunity for assisting in the achievement of a civilising feat which, if successful, will go very far to confute those pessimists who declare that our modern civilisation is a delusion and a snare, utterly destructive to the weaker races with whom it is brought in contact. BY ORDER OF THE LEAGUE.