WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



FiEST Meeting : 11th July, 1899. 



Mr. E, Teegear, President, in the chair. 



The President called attention to the loss the Society had 

 sustained owing to the death of the late Mr. F. E. Clarke. 



He said he had contributed most valuable papers to the Transactions 

 on the subject of the fishes of New Zealand. 



Sir James Hector also drew attention to the valuable work that Mr. 

 Clarke had done in this particular branch of science. 



Papers. — 1. "On Maori Spirals and Sun-worship," by E. 

 Tregear, F.R.G.S. {Transactions, p. 284.) 



Sir James Hector said the paper was a valuable one, full of erudition, 

 and with a good deal of original matter. He had questioned an old 

 Maori carver on the subject of the bow ornaments of the war-canoe, and 

 had been answered that they were copied from the spiral markings on 

 the skin of the thumb. Having made some experiments, he found to his 

 surprise that the thumbs of Europeans gave single spirals, whilst those 

 of many Maoris (though not of all) gave double spirals. It might yet be 

 found that this distinction gave valuable information as to the race-limits 

 and even as to the origin of the Polynesian. 



Mr. Hogben stated, in corroboration of what had been said in the 

 paper about the peasants in the Old Country jumping through the Beltine 

 fires in honour of Baal, the Sun-god, that he had noticed the lines of 

 people had always moved in one direction^ — viz., that of the sun's course. 



Mr. Tregear, in reply, said he considered if there was any difference 

 between the thumb-markings of Maoris and Europeans that such dis- 

 covery would be of great ethnic interest. As to a modern Maori's opinion 

 on such a subject as the origin of the double spiral in carving, it was 

 worthless as evidence. One Maori would say that it came from the un- 

 folding fern-frond, another from the thumb-marking, &c. None of them 

 could possibly know why their ancestors three thousand years ago used 

 the mark, unless a legend of undoubted antiquity had been handed down 

 from that period, and no such legend on the subject was at present 

 known. 



2. " Notes on Notornis mantelli," by E. Henry; communi- 

 cated by Sir J. Hector. [Transactions, p. 53.) 



3. " On Hereditary Knowledge," by E. Henry; communi- 

 cated by Sir J. Hector. {Transactions, p. 51.) 



Mr. Harding, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Tregear, and Sir J. Hector gave some 

 interesting information on the habits of certain birds and animals, which 

 seemed to indicate that they had something more than mere instinct. 



