Photo by Beattie & Sanderson, Auckland.]

Among the Churches the Church of England claims 40 per cent. of the people; the Presbyterians 23 per cent.; other Protestants, chiefly Methodists, 17 per cent.; and Catholics 14.  Methodists seem increasing rather faster than any other denomination.  Though the National School system is secular, it is not anti-Christian. 11,000 persons teach 105,000 children in Sunday-schools.  In the census returns about two per cent. of the population object or neglect to specify their religion; only about one per cent. style themselves as definitely outside the Christian camp.

The average density of population throughout the Colony’s 104,000 square miles is somewhat less than eight to the mile.  Two-thirds of the New Zealanders live in the country, in villages, or in towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants.  Even the larger towns cover, taken together, about seventy square miles of ground—­not very cramping limits for a quarter of a million of people.  Nor is there overcrowding in houses; less than five persons to a house is the proportion.  There are very few spots in the towns where trees, flower gardens, and grass are not close at hand, and even orchards and fields not far away.  The dwelling-houses, almost all of wood, seldom more than two storeys high, commonly show by their shady verandahs and veiling creepers that the New Zealand sun is warmer than the English.  Bright, windy, and full of the salt of the ocean, the air is perhaps the wholesomest on earth, and the Island race naturally shows its influence.  Bronzed faces display on every side the power of sun and wind.  Pallor is rare; so also is the more delicate pink and white of certain English skins.  The rainier, softer skies of the western coasts have their result in smoother skins and better complexions on that side of the Islands than in the drier east.  On the warm shores of Auckland there are signs of a more slightly-built breed, but not in the interior, which almost everywhere rises quickly into hill or plateau.  Athletic records show that the North Islanders hold their own well enough against Southern rivals.  More heavily built as a rule than the Australians, the New Zealanders have darker hair and thicker eyebrows than is common with the Anglo-Saxon of Northern England and Scotland.  Tall and robust, the men do not carry themselves as straight as the nations which have been through the hands of the drill-sergeant.  The women—­who are still somewhat less numerous than the males—­are as tall, but not usually as slight, as those of the English upper classes.  To sum up, the New Zealand race shows no sign of beating the best British, or of producing an average equal to that best; but its average is undoubtedly better than the general British average.  The puny myriads of the manufacturing towns have no counterpart in the Colony, and, if humanitarian laws can prevent it, never should.  The birth-rate and death-rate are both strikingly low:  the latter, 9.14 per 1,000, is the lowest in the world.  The birth-rate has fallen from 37.95 in 1881 to 25.96 in 1897.  The yearly number of births has in effect remained the same for sixteen years, though the population has grown thirty per cent. larger in the period.  The gain by immigration is still appreciable, though not large.