IF it is said on reading this paper, There is nothing in it, I answer, That is why I wrote it, because there is nothing in it, in order that something might come out of nothing. It is to show that statistics, capable of affording complete practical results when wanted, have scarcely made a beginning in the colonies. It is to show that when the Colonial Office, with great labour and no little cost, has collected, and I, with the same, have reduced these materials, they are incapable of giving all the beneficial information expected. The material does not exist, or, if it does, it is in a very undeveloped state. Such as it is, I have tried to do the best I could with it. And this is the result.
Several years ago, before Sir George Grey returned to his government at the Cape, I had a conversation with him on a subject which had dwelt very much on his mind, viz., the gradual disappearance of the aboriginal races from the neighbourhood of civilized communities. One of the points raised in the discussion was the probable effect which European school usages and school education might exercise on the health of the children of parents and of races who had never hitherto been brought under education.
