34 Transactions. — Zoology. 



the point of view of the theory maintained by the New 

 Zealand scientist. They tended to establish another point of 

 connection with what had happened in Europe. We know 

 that the rough-stone adze and the polished adze are among the 

 number of characteristic features which in Europe distinguish 

 two epochs. "We know also that the populations of these two 

 epochs belonged to different races, and that the more civilised 

 one had attacked and vanquished that race which had pre- 

 ceded it. To find again in New Zealand our two ages, Palaeo- 

 lithic and Neolithic, characterized thus by implements indi- 

 cating a difference of social status, was to bring a serious 

 argument in favour of the ethnological distinction between 

 moa-hunters and Maoris. But in excavating the Sumner 

 Cave and the neighbouring cliffs Haast himself discovered, at 

 different times, fragments of adzes and other highly-polished 

 implements, as well as pieces in the rough, resembling in 

 every respect those that we know to be the work of the 

 Maoris. Some of these objects were in greenstone. They 

 were all found under conditions attesting their cotempo- 

 raneity with the men who had hunted and eaten the large 

 brevipennate birds. I shall confine myself to a reference to 

 one adze which was placed immediately below some stones 

 forming the oven which had served for cooking moas.( G7 ) In 

 the face of these material proofs collected by himself, Dr. 

 Haast does not hesitate to recognise with perfect candour 

 that the moa-hunters had attained a degree of civilisation 

 equal to that which the Maoris presented when the Europeans 

 visited New Zealand for the first time.( 68 ) 



We are, I think, authorised to believe that this equality of 

 social development, manifesting itself by similar industrial 

 characteristics, ought to have inspired in the learned New- 

 Zealander some doubt as to the correctness of his theory. 

 All the same, Dr. Haast has not renounced any of his precon- 

 ceived ideas. He persists in denying the ethnical identity of 

 the moa-hunters and the Maoris, and in throwing back into 

 a past which he considers as geological the period of the 

 disappearance of the moa.( r ' 9 ) As far as I can see, Mr. Colenso 

 seems to be the only one who has accepted this doctrine in 



(67.) "Researches in Sumner Moa-cave " (Transactions, vol. vii., 

 p. 77). 



(G8.) Id., p. 80. Before Dr. Haast had retracted his views on this 

 particular point, numerous discoveries had heen made in different places 

 of implements and weapons in polished stone, mingled with moa-remains. 

 Higher up I mentioned how Dr. Haast had tried to explain and interpret 

 these facts, so I will not repeat it. The clear and honest declaration of 

 the eminent geologist absolves me from entering into any details here. 



(69.) Haast, " Geology," &c. Note especially the thirteen propositions 

 set forth, p. 430, and chap. xvi. (c), p. 437. 



