Wellington Philosoiihical Society. 525 



this question should be cleared up. For this purpose he ventured to sug- 

 gest that Mr. Walker should be communicated with, and asked to make 

 a definite statement on the matter. Mr. Tregear maintained the genuine- 

 ness of the bird ; Colonel ^McDonnell declared that a direct fraud had been 

 perpetrated. One or other of these statements was true; but if the latter 

 was true, then all the scientific societies of New Zealand had been most 

 unworthilj' deceived, and their honour was involved in the matter. But 

 it seemed to him, also, that a further and much more important question 

 was raised in connection with this bird. The asseveration of the Maoris, 

 as adopted by Mr. Tregear, was that the bird was brought by their ancestors 

 from that mythical place Hawaiki, and that it was an object of intense 

 veneration amongst them. For his own part, he attached no value to 

 Maori legends antl traditions beyond the date, say, of a man's grandfather. 

 Within such a period a Maori would probably know many actual facts. 

 The memory of savages did not, as a rule, go much further back ; and 

 as to occurrences of earlier date, the speaker inclined to the belief that 

 a ]\Iaori would manufacture legends by scores to order — not, perhaps, 

 about actual deeds of warfare or domestic life, but certainly as to relics 

 such as this bird, or anything in connection with gods and heroes ; much 

 more especially if "Hawaiki "' came into discussion. But, leaving these 

 old women's fables aside, it seemed not impossible that the bird might be 

 accounted for in another way. From the date when Vasco di Gama 

 rounded the Cape of Good Hope to the arrival of Captain Cook in New 

 Zealand somewhere near 350 years elapsed. During that period the 

 eastern and southern seas were traversed by hundreds of ships — Portu- 

 guese, French, Spanish, Dutch, and English — manned by hardy navi- 

 gators, who thought nothing at all of braving the terrors of unknown 

 seas. As regarded the Portuguese and the Diitch, the speaker had reason 

 to believe that the captains of their early ships were not allowed, except 

 in special cases like Tasman's, to publish records of their voyages. These 

 records were sent in only to their respective Governments, and he felt 

 convinced that in the archives of Lisbon and Amsterdam there might be 

 foiuid numbers of such unpublished "ships' logs." In the 350 years 

 jiist mentioned there was room for any niimber of ships to have 

 touched at New Zealand, and from any one of these the stone bird might 

 have been stolen by the ^laoris, and afterwards made the subject of songs, 

 of legends, and all sorts of rubbish. On these considerations he ventured 

 to move, " That the Council of the Society be requested to open commu- 

 nications with the Governments of Portugal and Holland, with a view of 

 ascertaining whether there are to be found in the archives of those coun- 

 tries any records of ships which may have touched at New Zealand prior 

 to the visit of Captain Cook, besides those of the expedition of Tasman." 



Mr. S. Percy Smith said he considered the question of the authenti- 

 city of the Korotangi a matter of great importance in relation to Maori 

 history, and hoped the Council would endeavour to clear up the doubts 

 that existed as to the real facts of the finding of it. No doubt the means 

 still existed for ascertainmg these facts, and if inquiry were directed to 

 the proper source the matter Would be cleared up. It had been men- 

 tioned in ]\Iajor Wilson's paper that several well-known chiefs had recog- 

 nized the bird as one of their ancient atuas ; amongst them were Rewi 

 Maniapoto, Tawhiao, and Te Ngakau. The two former were still living, 

 though the latter was dead; and application to them, or to Wahanui or 

 Taonui, all descendants of those who came over in the Tainui canoe, 

 would soon elicit the fact as to whether the Korotangi was known to them 

 by tradition. There could be no doubt, as pointed out by Major Gudgeon, 

 that, if the Korotangi was a bond fide Maori relic of ancient times, the 

 tribe to whom it formerly belonged would have exact traditions of it. 

 Rewi Maniapoto, though now a very old man, was well acquainted with 

 the history of his tribe, and could certainly throw light on this subject if 



