| Summary: | In this thesis my object is to describe the process of interracial marriage between Pakehas and Maoris in Auckland and to relate this to aspects of the relations between the races in the community. In the first part I outline a typology of mixed marriage in terms of which I discuss the characteristics of the spouses in my sample. This is followed by a discussion of statistical material drawn from marriage records and brief account of some representative cases. Part two is concerned with the process of getting married, beginning with an analysis of the possibilities which exist for the development of interracial social relationships and tracing the processes of dating and courtship through to engagement and marriage. At each stage I am concerned with the factors which influence the decision-making of the individuals and in particular the reactions shown by other members of the community. In Part Three I discuss the special problems faced by the intermarried in terms of the relationship between spouses and that between the couple and members of the community, in particular their kinsfolk. The last part deals with the place of the offspring of mixed marriages and with intermarriage as a historical process. This latter is analysed in terms of genealogies containing the descendants of some early mixed marriages and shows the way in which the marriage choice and place in the community of individuals has been affected by their mixed ancestry. The study demonstrates that, while the members of neither race accept mixed marriages completely, the obstacles placed in the way of most young people who wish to marry a member of the other race are not usually great and their place in the community is not usually seriously affected by their choice of spouse. It also indicates that the rate of intermarriage is likely to increase and this will be one factor in a situation of improving race relations in New Zealand.
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