530 Proceedings. 



Third Meeting : 24th August, 1892. 



Sir Walter Buller, President, in the chair. 



Paper. — " On the Extinction of the Moa," by E. Tregear, 

 F.B.G.S. (Transactions, p. 413.) 



Sir W. Buller said that, as the author had pointedly mentioned his 

 story of the pet moa, he would explain the reference. At the hearing of 

 the great Rangatira Block case in the Native Land Court in 18S2, he 

 (the speaker) acted as counsel for the Ngatiapa Tribe. The title to the 

 block of land in dispute was closely contested at every point by the rival 

 tribes ; but one piece of traditional history was accepted by both si les 

 as true — this was the story of the pet bird of the Ngatituwharetoa. 

 Instead of belonging to the " land of pure myth," this story recounted 

 an incident in the history of the Ngatiapa Tribe ; and the account given 

 by a witness well versed in the traditions of the people was as follows : 

 Apahapaitaketake, an ancestor of the Ngatiapa people, stole a moa 

 which was a pet bird of the Ngatituwharetoa. While doing so he fell 

 over a cliff and broke his thigh, and was thenceforward nicknamed 

 " Hapakoki " (Hop-and-go-one). He got off with the moa in spite of 

 this. When the Ngatituwharetoa heard of this outrage, they came down 

 upon his place and carried off his wife, Hinemoatu, in payment for the 

 moa which he had stolen. Then Hapakoki, in great wrath, went and 

 seized the kumaras of Kawerau ; and the Ngatituwharetoa, in equal 

 wrath, made an attack on the Ngatiapa. As the result of all this, the 

 Ngatiapa left the Bay of Plenty district, and came to Maunganui, in the 

 Upper Rangitikei, where they were again attacked by the Ngatitu- 

 wharetoa, who had pursued them from Te Awa-o-te-atua. Then the 

 Ngatiapa moved on south, and settled on the north-east side of the 

 Taupo Lake; but they were followed up and again attacked, after which 

 they moved on to Tawhare-papaama and Moturoa, south of Taupo and 

 close to Rotoaira, on the edge of the lake of that name, whence they 

 subsequently migrated to the coast and settled down between the 

 Wangaehu and Manawatu Rivers. Now, this was a pretty- well-authenti- 

 cated story — accepted, at any rate, by rival factions in Court as histori- 

 cally true — showing that the moa was not only well known to the 

 ancestors of the present race of Maoris, but that it was capable of 

 domestication, and that a tame one had been an important factor in 

 the tribal history of the Ngatiapa. It might be urged that this was an 

 isolated case, but he would submit that, even so, it was a sufficient 

 answer to the sweeping assertion that the ancient Maori knew nothing 

 about the moa or its existence. He quite agreed with Mr. Tregear that 

 it was desirable to treat the whole question from an impersonal point of 

 view. The subject had been so much discussed and speculated upon for 

 years past that the band of scientists and workers in New Zealand had, 

 as it were, divided themselves into two schools. There were those repre- 

 sented by the late Sir Julius von Haast, including Professor Hutton, 

 Mr. Colenso, Mr. Stack, and others, who believed that the moa became 

 extinct at a remote date, perhaps many thousands of J%ars ago ; and 

 those represented by Sir James Hector, Mr. Mantell, Mr. Travers, Mr. 

 Maskell, and many others, including himself, who held to the theory that 

 some, at any rate, of the species of Dinomis, if not the more colossal 

 ones, had survived to within a comparatively recent period, and had 

 been finally killed off by the ancestors of the present race of Maoris. 

 Sir W. Buller proceeded to give numerous facts in support of the latter 

 contention. He added that the late Professor De Quatrefages had, in a 

 masterly review of the whole of the literature on this subject, arrived at 

 a similar conclusion; and he quoted several passages from a translation 

 of that memoir (" Les Moas et les Chasseurs de Moas ") made by Miss 



