They were a tropical race transplanted into a temperate climate.

They showed much the same tendency to cling to the North Island as the negroes in North America to herd in the Gulf States.

Their dress, their food and their ways were those of dwellers on shores out of reach of frost and snow.

Though of stout and robust figure, they are almost always weak in the chest and throat.

Should the Maoris die out, the medical verdict might be summed up in the one word tuberculosis.
The first European observers noted that they suffered from "galloping" consumption.