THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION
2.22 However, these counties leave out the area to the west and south-west of the Firth. The seaward fringes of Manukau, Franklin and Waikato are within the traditional rohe and Hauraki people undoubtedly lived there; Puckey and Wilkinson enumerated people from this area in their 'Hauraki' and 'Thames' counts. These counties, and probably also Eden and Waitemata to the north, would have contained a number of Hauraki people. Accordingly some attention will also be paid to the Maori population of these 'fringe' counties, even though there is no way of distinguishing their Hauraki component.
2.23 The following figures summarise information which is given in full in Table 3. The census totals for the counties defined as 'core' above are:
1886 2,408
1891 2,133
1896 2,376
1901 2,161
1906 2,185
1911 2,055
1916 1,767
The fairly high figure for 1886 is possibly an over-estimate but even if it is discounted considerably it represents a significant increase on the adjusted 'tribal/district' figure of about 1,600 calculated for 1881. Pool considers that the Maori censuses of 1896 and 1916 are 'under-counts' (Pool, p. 71)—this, if it is applied to this part of the Hauraki region, suggests a significant increase in the mid-189os followed by a decline (but less far-reaching than the 1916 return would suggest) in the early zoth century. As the next paragraph will suggest, this decline is likely to have been caused by out-migration, probably in search of work as opportunities declined in the 'core' counties.
2.24 The Maori population of the counties described above as 'fringe' is given below; again, full information is set out in the attached table. At this time the level of Maori urbanisation was low, and the greater number of the people counted in this table were in Manukau, Franklin (part of Manukau until 1916) and Waikato.
1886 1,438
1891 1,455
1896 1,509
1901 2,202
1906 1,987
1911 1,937
1916 1,946
If the returns for 1896 and 1916 are taken as under-counts, the overall picture is of a steadily increasing Maori population in these counties on the western and southern borders of the Hauraki rohe. It is likely that the outward movement of Hauraki people