ABSTRACT
In the 1970s the Maoris are New Zealand’s largest and most distinctive minority. The 1971 Census recorded a Maori population of 227,414, making up 7·9 per cent of the New Zealand population. With their brown skins and Polynesian features, Maoris have high visibility in a population mainly of British stock. (They are not so readily distinguished from the Polynesian immigrants popularly known as ‘Islanders’, but the latter are much less numerous: 45,413 in 1971, or 1·6 per cent of the total population.) While Maoris have the same basic rights, the laws include some provisions which distinguish them from other citizens. As a group they have a distinctive demographic character, and they differ from the non-Maori population in their patterns of employment, income, housing, health, family life, education, crime and delinquency. While they share a large area of common culture with other New Zealanders, they also cherish patterns of behaviour, organization and values that are distinctively Maori. Above all, they are intensely proud of their ethnic and cultural identity.
