White. — On the Native Dog of New Zealand. 551 



stood, tapu or sacred. It is possible that the tree, being on 

 the banks of a river, became undermined, and, falling into the 

 water, was carried to sea and thrown on a boulder- bank ; 

 afterwards came the upheaval — the cliffs of papa rock being at 

 one time the bed of the ocean. The upper strata can only be 

 accounted for by volcanic agency. The natives have a tradition 

 of both Tongariro and Taranaki being active. 



" With respect to Mr. Colenso's theory of the native dog, I 

 think he must be in error. I have been in New Zealand since 

 1845, and knew, or did know, every breed of dog in England, 

 and owned at various times different varieties. The terrier, 

 hound, pointer, have ears lying flat with the face. The grey- 

 hound and sheep-dog have ears with the front slightly raised, 

 but the tips falling, not pricked or standing upwards. Now, 

 the dogs I saw with the natives in 1845 could not have been 

 produced by any English breed of dog. They were about the 

 height of an English terrier, rather long, tail drooping, colour 

 whitish - yellow inclining to brown on the back, coat long 

 and straight, nose pointed, and prick-eared. I recollect being 

 so struck at their appearance that I inquired what they were 

 used for, and was told that they hunted the kiwi and weka, 

 and their skins were used for making mats. I saw some years 

 ago a native wearing a dogskin mat of a whitish colour, and 

 another native with a mat made from dogs of different colours, 

 the mat being striped white-and-brown. 



" The sheep-dog could not have been inti'oduced into New 

 Zealand many years, certainly not a hundred. But, for argu- 

 ment's sake, the particulars of breed would not die out in a 

 hundred years ; it would show itself in its markings and in 

 the general structure of the animal. Could the Maoris have 

 brought the dog with them from Mangaia or Earotonga ? The 

 Eev. W. W. Gill, B.A., in his book on ' Savage Life in Polynesia,' 

 speaks of two chiefs, Tawai and Tekarakau, being expelled from 

 Mangaia some two hundred and fifty years ago, but does not 

 state that they took dogs with them. They set sail from Ma- 

 ngaia in two large double canoes. These canoes arrived safely 

 at New Zealand. Old Maoris give names of other canoes 

 which came to New Zealand at a much earlier period, thus 

 accounting for the numbers of people seen by Captain Cook in 

 1777. 



" The natives on this coast have no other name for dog but 

 ' kuri,' and before the arrival of the horse this term was not 

 used to denote any other animal, i^ horse is now sometimes 

 called ' kuri,' a rat ' kiore,' and a pig ' poaka,' from the English 

 'pork.' Waka or vaha, at Mangaia, Earotonga, and Samoa, 

 means simply a canoe. Whaka is a prefix to a verb. Kau and 

 kaukau, to swim. Kaliorekau is a superlative negative, and 

 korakau sometimes spoken in praise and sometimes in derision 



