504 Proceedings. 



coast of Viti Leva, in Fiji, upon the first horse sent down to a plantation 

 there in which he was tlien interested. The marvel of tlie natives, who 

 had never seen a horse, and their screams of astonisliment as lie can- 

 tered past the villages, were most amusing. The missionaries had told 

 them of a bull and of a cow. Some of them may have seen these 

 animals. But he only knew that the children ran screaming away, with 

 the cry of " BuUumakau ! BuUumakau ! " They joined the names of 

 bull and cow together, and so dubbed the horse. This fairly showed the 

 state of knowledge of the present race of Poljmesia iipon the subject of 

 cattle. As to the ancient race, Mr. Phillips pointed out that the 

 languages of the present Polynesian might not have been used at all 

 by the ancient race — that race of stone-builders which left behind the 

 Cyclopean remains still existing in the Carolines, the gigantic images of 

 stone men still seen in Easter Island, the monoliths and trinoliths of 

 Tonga, the remains of aqueducts in New Caledonia, &c. The present 

 race of Polynesians knew positively nothing about these ancient stone- 

 builders. Mr. Tregear's use of the word " ancient " was therefore 

 scarcely warranted. He quite recognised the value of Mr. Tregear's 

 work, and encouraged him to proceed in it ; but he would prefer Mr. 

 Tregear to treat it as a linguistic study. 



In answer to Mr. Phillips, Mr. Tregear said he had little to say to 

 Mr. Phillips's argument. As to the Polynesians being a stone-building 

 people, although in Hawaii they had temples of stone, &c., yet in New 

 Zealand there had never been one stone put on another in prehistoric 

 times — a proof that before the separation they had not been a stone- 

 using people. As to IMr. Phillips being qualified to speak about ancient 

 Polynesians because he had spent some time in Fiji, Fiji was inhabited 

 by a Melanesian people of different origin from that of the Maori, and 

 Fiji was not a Polynesian island at all. 



4. "On the Ancient Moa-hunters at Waiugongoro," by 

 Colonel McDonnell ; communicated by J. Park. (Trans- 

 aciions, p. 438.) 



The President said that this was a question that had caused a great 

 deal of argument. Sir Julius von Haast, Mr. Colenso, and others had 

 taken one side (arguing that the moa was extinct before the Maoris came 

 to New Zealand) ; while Mr. INIantell, Sir James Hector, and others had 

 taken the other. He expressed surprise that INIr. Colenso should found a 

 theory on the circumstance that there were no traditions or legends to 

 prove otherwise, and questioned whether these traditions were of any 

 value at all. Certainly he thought the testimony of a man who had 

 actually seen and eaten the moa was worth ten thousand legends and 

 traditions. 



INIr. Tregear said that, although not prepared" that night to speak 

 on this question at length, a paper of his on " The IMaori and the Moa " 

 had been read before the Anthropological Society of London in May this 

 year, and to prepare for this he had read up every available authority. 

 His conclusions were that the Maori had never seen the moa ; that his 

 knowledge of the subject (if he had any knowledge) was traditional, and 

 gathered from some older race inhabiting the islands when the Maori 

 arrived, and absorbed by him. The negative evidence was very strong ; 

 the absence of any distinct notice of the huge birds in hunting-legends, 

 and in descriptions of food-supplies, was very noticeable. The moa spoken 

 of in the vague and fragmentary allusions to be found might have been 

 an}' bird, large or small. In reply to INIr. Maskell, he would state that 

 the comparison of native legends to worthless fairy-tales was unfortunate, 

 because some of the most valuable evidence of the remote lives of our 

 ancestors was being gathered together by comparative mythologists from 

 fairy-tales, and it had been found that even nursery rhymes had 



