The European population of New Zealand has grown explosively, from fewer than one thousand in 1831 to five hundred thousand by 1881.

Some four hundred thousand settlers had come from Britain, of whom three hundred thousand stay permanently.

Most are young people and two hundred and fifty thousand babies have been born.

The colonial government had paid for the passage of one hundred and twenty thousand.

Immigration slackens after 1880, and future growth will be due chiefly to the excess of births over deaths.