Wellington Philosophical Society. 585 



who found that his carts, when loading wool in the suif-boats, had now 

 to negotiate a very different depth of water from that which was the ride 

 some years ago. 



.Mi. Hogben, in his reply, referring to the case of the settler of whom 

 Dr. Newman had spoken, expressed the hope that we might soon see good 

 bench-marks all round the coasts of the colony, or, failing these, some 

 suitable instruments, such as the simple clinometer recommended by the 

 British Association. 



3. " Results of Dredging on the Continental Shelf of New- 

 Zealand " (Part I), by Charles Hedley, F.L.S., Sydney ; com- 

 municated by A. Hamilton. (Transactions, p. 68.) 



Exhibits. — At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr. A. Hamil- 

 ton, Director of the Colonial Museum, Wellington, exhibited 

 and described some recent additions to the Museum. Mr. 

 Hamilton also exhibited a wooden tablet from Easter Island 

 bearing lines of hieroglyphics presumably inscribed upon it 

 by the ancient inhabitants of the island. 



Third Meeting : 5th July, 1905. 

 Mr. Martin Chapman, President, in the chair. 



New Member. — Mr. Percy B. Philson. 



Papers. — 1. " Recent Discoveries of Moa-bones on Miramar 

 Peninsula, Wellington," by Henry M. Christie. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, Mr. Edward 

 Tregea:, dealing with the much-debated question of the period at which 

 the nioa became extinct, expressed the opinion that at present the whole 

 subject was beset with difficulties : it was impossible to come to a de- 

 finite conclusion. Although the geologists tried to convince us that with- 

 in cpiite recent times the Maoris were feasting on the moa and its eggs on 

 Miramar Peninsula, he himself was net prepared to admit that Maoris 

 living in or near our own times had ever seen the bird. It seemed to him 

 that it must be much more than four hundred years since the moa became 

 extinct, 



Mr. A. McKay defended the view that the moa had survived to very 

 recent times. He instanced places near Wellington wheie he had col- 

 lected very many moa-bones and egg-shells. At one of these spots he had 

 found "gallons'" of the egg-shells, which had plainly been cooked, 'and 

 the contents of which had dcubtiess been eaten. To his mind the evi- 

 dence was overwhelming th.pt the moa was here a hundred years ago. He 

 gave reasons for believing that moa-eggs (some of them in process of in- 

 cubation) had been eaten in abundance by the Natives in different parts 

 of the colony. 



2. " Feeding-place of Starlings," by Henry M. Christie. 



3. " Some New Compounds of a Similar Nature to Antife- 

 brine," by P. W. Robertson, M.A., Rhodes Scholar. (Trans- 

 actions, p. 45.) 



Professor Easterfield pointed out that the work embodied in Mr. 

 Robertson's paper could claim, in addition to its scientific interest, a direct 

 utilitarian value. 



