Page:Hawaiki The Original Home of the Maori.djvu/21



question of the origin of the Maori people of New Zealand necessarily involves that of the whole Polynesian Race, for the Maoris are but one of a number of branches of that race, although the most important in point of numbers and in a few other respects, which we shall have occasion to refer to in the course of this narrative. The homogeneity of this race is a remarkable feature, scattered as it is over an extent of the earth's surface that equals in actual area—if it does not exceed that occupied—by any other race of like homogeneity. The area occupied by the race in the Pacific may be stated as about two million square miles; but the land area within this space is small, and varies from that of New Zealand with its one hundred thousand square miles, down to little atolls of barely a square mile in area. The number of the inhabitants of this vast space is by no means proportionate to its size. The following table will illustrate this, the figures being approximate:—