2.1 The study of the Maori population in the i9th and early loth centuries presents difficulties that preclude any but the most general and cautious conclusions. This is even more the case with an attempt to describe the population of a particular region. These difficulties arise from the nature of the sources. While they must be used in the absence of any others, they must be approached with due caution.
2.2 The sources include: observations and estimates offered by visitors before the mid-19th century, usually of limited localities; the more thorough and careful survey made by F. D. Fenton in 1857; a series of more hasty estimates published by the government in the 186os; three censuses (1874, 1878 and 1881) which give figures under tribal headings for particular districts; a series of seven censuses from 1886 to 1916 which give figures for Maori resident in counties. Three of these also give information for a tribal entity designated Ngati Maru'. The censuses are the main source, and their limitations are evident. Maori population was assessed by enumerators while the Pakeha population was measured through schedules filled in by individuals. The enumerators were conscientious, but they were themselves aware of the deficiencies of the process.
2.3 For a regional study additional problems occur. There is no way of knowing the precise region to which enumerators refer when they indicate the 'Hauraki district' or the 'Thames district' (though an effort will be made to penetrate this obscurity). Further, though figures related to administrative counties must be used, groupings of relevant counties are either less or more extensive than the traditional Hauraki rohe. Again, though some reference will be made to figures which purport to show tribal populations there are major difficulties in nomenclature. Finally, the main and most useful series for the late 19th and early loth century period refer to all Maori within each county. Members of 'non-Hauraki' tribes are included in 'Hauraki' figures and some 'Hauraki' people are counted in more distant counties.
2.4 Given these problems, the goals of this section of the report must be limited ones. First, an attempt will be made to present in outline the evidence that arises from these disparate sources; second, some conclusions of a broad and general kind will be suggested; and third, what appear to be critical points in the demographic history of Maori in the region will be identified.
