It will doubtless be satisfactory to Miss Nightingale to learn that
scrofula and consumption are not common diseases among the native
inhabitants of the colony, and that, so far from the efforts made to
civilize the people having the effect of causing the extinction of the
native races in this colony, the natives in the neighbourhood of the
larger towns are rapidly increasing in numbers, while in some of the
remoter districts where schools are as yet unknown the population is
decreasing. Amongst the causes of this decrease may be mentioned the
hateful practice of polyandry, now happily forbidden by law, and the
want of proper sustenance, the result partly of imperfect means of
cultivation. A better state of things is gradually being brought about
by {65} the spread of education, and by this very civilization which
is said to be likely to cause the extinction of the native races.