Wellington Philosophical Society. 505 



passed from mouth to mouth unaltered for ages. Literature corrupted 

 tradition ; and the semi-religious manner in which old songs and charms 

 were handed down from priest to priest and from father to son gave 

 them a value for accuracy beside which our current gossiping way of 

 telhng narratives or of compiling history was loose and valueless. Only 

 those who knew and loved the investigations were competent to under- 

 stand their value. 



Mr. Park read an extract from a paper by the Rev. R. Taylor, which 

 he said had a direct bearing on Colonel McDonnell's paper, and con- 

 firmed the incidents described by that author. Mr. Taylor describes 

 how he visited Waingongoro in 1843, and again in 1866 in company with 

 Sir George Grey, when he collected burnt moa-bones and obsidian-liakes, 

 which were plentiful in the old Maori ovens at that place. Jlr. Park said 

 that the late Sir Julius von Haast always held the opinion that the moa 

 was exterminated by an aboriginal race of Polynesian origin that in- 

 habited New Zealand before the arrival of the Maoris. This theory, 

 however, was based on two assumptions which had yet to be substantiated 

 — first, that such a race did at one time occupy New Zealand ; and, 

 second, that the Maoris did not kill and eat moas. Mr. McKay, who 

 assisted in the exploration of Sumner Cave, near Christchurch, went a 

 little further and expressed the opinion that the extermination of the 

 moa was the first work of the Maoris on their arrival in this country. 

 In view of the researches of Mr. Mantell and Mr. Taylor, IMr. Park 

 thought Mr. McKay might have gone further. It seemed now to be be- 

 yond dispute that the moa lived down into what might be called historical 

 times. 



The further discussion of this paper was adjourned. 



Eighth Meeting : 14th November, 1888. 



W. M. Maskell, F.E.M.S., President, in the chair. 



Papers. — 1. Adjourned discussion of Colonel McDonnell's 

 paper on " Moa-hunting." 



Mr. Tregear, speaking from some notes he had prepared, said he 

 did not wish to impugn for a moment the good faith of Colonel 

 McDonnell, who had doubtless presented the evidence as supplied to him, 

 but he protested against such evidence being published as reliable. The 

 first discoverers of moa-remains, Messrs. Colenso, INIantell, and Taylor, 

 had been not only keen lovers of science but accomplished linguists ; 

 and they had exhausted every variety of research in trying to get reliable 

 evidence from the oldest Maoris forty years ago, with the result that 

 Mr. Colenso, in his learned paper on the subject, stated that if the Maoris 

 had ever known the moa it must have been in very ancient days. He 

 came to this conclusion from the absence of allusion to the great bird in 

 combats of deities and heroes with monsters ; from the absence of mention 

 in hunting-stories and lists of food-supplies ; from the absence of moa- 

 feathers on garments (while cloaks of kiwi- and albatross-feathers and of 

 dogs' tails were prized) ; and from the mythical character given to the bird, 

 as being found on a mountain guarded by huge lizards, &c. The old leading 

 chiefs to whom he (Mr. Colenso) wrote said that " neither they nor their 

 forefathers had ever known the moa." The speaker said that they were 

 too apt to consider the New Zealand Maori as a unique animal : he was 

 only a member of the Polynesian nation ; and, as everywhere in Poly- 

 nesia the word " moa " is used for the domestic fowl, it was probable that 

 the !Maori also once knew the fowl as " moa." The compound words con- 

 taining moa were plainly, in Polynesia, references to the cock, as " cou- 



