So where, in just 22 years, did these extra 35,000 Ngāi Tahu come from?
Some interesting numbers covering NZ’s most litigious tribe, the South Islanders of Ngāi Tahu. In 1840, the tribe was estimated to have around 2,500 members. However, by 2001 this number had grown to 40,000, meaning that every Ngāi Tahu female across every generation between 1840 and 2001 had given birth to at least four surviving infants, at least 50 per cent of whom were themselves female. This is unlikely, given the prevalence in Māori society of roromi, but not impossible. (Infanticide among Maori was usually sex-selective, with female infants the primary victims.)
