Wellington Philosophical Society. 531 



Buller, and laid on the table at a former meeting of the Society. He 

 concluded by saying that, although Mr. Tregear, from a philological 

 treatment of the subject, appeared to have arrived at an opposite con- 

 clusion, he had listened to the paper with much interest, because it was 

 a very suggestive one and opened up new lines of thought. 



Mr. Travers considered that the moa existed as a living bird within a 

 limited period. He referred to Mr. White's description of the hunting of 

 the moa, and to the traditions on the subject. He had no doubt about 

 the evidence that the ancestors of the present race of Maoris had eaten 

 this bird. The finds of bones at Oamaru and elsewhere would prove that 

 the existence was comparatively recent. The Maoris must have known 

 about the moa. A moa's egg was found buried with a chief. The egg 

 and chick, the latter in the embryo state, found in Otago would bear out 

 the recent theory. He did not think it could have meant the common 

 fowl. The word " moa " was given to a bird tall and graceful in its move- 

 ments. We could not judge of this matter from the Maoris of the present 

 day, but fifty years ago they were familiar with the existence of this bird. 

 It was strange that so many species of this gigantic bird should have 

 existed in New Zealand. 



Mr. Harding did not think Mr. White altogether a safe guide on this 

 matter. The place mentioned by Mr. White where a moa was destroyed 

 was actually occupied by Europeans, and yet they did not seem to have 

 made this fact known. As to the preservation of the moa-remains, it was 

 well known that seeds, bones, &c, might be preserved for thousands of 

 years if they were protected from destroying agencies. The natives 

 very often gave information that they thought would please those asking 

 them. 



Mr. Maskell said that, if Mr. Harding's views about the Maoris were 

 correct, they entirely bore out his contention that Maori traditions on 

 such matters were valueless. It stood to reason that, if a Maori was 

 ready to invent a tradition about moas out of courtesy to a white man, 

 then the reliance to be placed on any Maori traditions whatever could 

 only be infinitesimal ; and, further, it must be clear that neither the 

 absence nor presence of a tradition could form an argument of any value 

 at all. In point of fact, the " traditions " of savage or semi-savage races 

 which had not a literature of any kind must necessarily be valueless the 

 moment they extended beyond the domain of ordinary domestic affairs, 

 or distinct actions of perhaps two or three generations ago. He quite 

 agreed with the President as to the very great importance of the paper 

 by M. De Quatrefages, and he was proud of having been the first to bring 

 that paper under the notice of the people of the colony several years ago, 

 in the pages of the " New Zealand Journal of Science." As for the 

 philological aspect of the question, it still seemed to him, as he had said 

 on former occasions, that by merely taking words of different languages, 

 and comparing their spelling and sounds, especially if such spelling 

 and sounds were not those of the natives, but those of missionaries, a 

 man might prove to his own satisfaction every conceivable theory. 

 Philology so confined was no real service. The important points for con- 

 sideration in comparative philology were grammar and syntax, and mere 

 verbal resemblances were not, taken alone, valuable. To return to tradi- 

 tion, whilst he thought little of Maori legends, he did value European 

 tradition, and he well remembered hearing the late Sir F. Weld state 

 often that, when he started from Nelson, somewhere about 1848, to make 

 the first overland journey to what is now Canterbury, the Maoris warned 

 him to be very careful of the large birds which he would meet in the 

 mountains, and which would kick him to death if they could. That was 

 a tradition worth any number of volumes filled with Maori legends. 



Mr. A. McKay thought the discussion had drifted from the subject of 

 Mr. Tregear's paper. As regards moa-remains, they were to be found in 



