drew upon a range of returns and impressions, arose from the government's concern with the decline of the Maori population. Accordingly, it is much more specific as to age, sex and family size than as to location and distribution. While many of its tables give information about individual tribes, these do not include any from the Hauraki region.
2.9 Fenton gives a general table under the heading 'Provinces and Districts', but the limits of the districts are not stated. For the Hauraki region the relevant locations are:
Thames 1,428 Gulf of Hauraki 214
Coromandel 351
Mercury Bay 56
Te Wairoa 230
Total 2,279
2.10 'Thames' probably refers to both sides of the Firth of Thames (there was no town of that name at the time), 'Coromandel' to the northern part of the peninsula, 'Mercury Bay' to the district still known by that name, and 'Gulf of Hauraki' to the islands and the mainland on the western side of the gulf. If this reconstruction is correct, Fenton's region would correspond reasonably closely with the overall Hauraki area. Possibly, however, the district from Whangamata south to about Katikati would have contained Hauraki people excluded from his estimate. Fenton's figures have been considered an under-enumeration by demographers (Pool, Te Iwi Maori, p. 54). Accordingly, the regional figure should be revised upwards, perhaps to around 2,500. Set beside Williams' and Dieffenbach's estimates from 1838 and 1841, this still suggests a very sharp decline. Even if it is allowed that the earlier figures may be seriously inflated, it seems reasonable to conclude that the 184os and 185os saw a distinct decline in the Hauraki Maori population, probably through increased mortality, and possibly reduced fertility and out-migration.
2.11 However, Fenton's survey does suggest that the Hauraki district was still, on a comparative basis, a fairly populous area in the 185os. He gives 38, 269 as his estimate for the Auckland province (ie. the whole area stretching south to the boundaries of Taranaki and Wellington provinces); Hauraki accounts for around 6-7% of this total. Other districts listed by Fenton include: Hokianga, 2,789; Lower Waikato, 1,729; Manuka (Manukau), 591.
Further decline in the 186os?
2.12 No Maori data were included in the 1864 Census, thanks to 'the disturbed condition' of the country. The 1871 census gave no figures for Maori because it was not considered 'practicable' to do so. However, an estimate published in 1867 does give detailed figures, including one for `Ngatimaru and adjacent Tribes'—as many as 3,670, more than 13% of the total for the Auckland province. In the light of Fenton's earlier figure and the yet lower figure from the 1874 census, this estimate must be regarded with
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