The result of this is that by the turn of the century, a population of around 2,000 Moriori who had lived pre-1835 had been reduced to only 31, and at about that time a lot of elders passed on. It seemed that the Moriori culture might be erased from the surface of the Earth by this series of events. It's a great tribute to those survivors who have gone on to rebuild the culture and to re-establish its identity, to fight back against the myths of the School Journal, and to actually establish identity and some rights, and this legislation, which acknowledges that history, issues an apology from the Crown, is a big part of that.