500 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



been brought by the Hawaiki immigrants from their former home, as, for 

 instance, the accounts of the great lizard (crocodile ?) ? 



3. If the traditions of the Hfoa are applicable to New Zealand, wheit, 

 according to them, became the Moa extinct? 



4. Are there any reliable traditions that when the immigration or im- 

 migrations from Hawaiki took place another autochthonous population 

 was inhabiting New Zealand ? 



5. To what race did it belong ? 



G. Had the Hawaiki immigrants, or their predecessors, a frugivorous- 

 dog? When did it become extinct or alter its habits? Are there any 

 traditions about it ? 



7. Are there any traditions when greenstone was first used by the 

 natives ? Julius von Haast, 



Christchurch, 19th March, 1885. 



Napier, 31st March, 1885. 

 My dear Professoe Von Haast, — 



Thanks for your kind note of the 23rd inst. ... I have 

 endeavoured to answer your questions, but, I fear, not satisfactorily, 

 either to you or to myself ; but if you will patiently look into those old 

 papers of mine, as noted, you will, I think, gain some information. 



I feel at times not a little vexed with the powers that be, when i 

 reflect how much, how greatly, I have been hindered and thwarted in my 

 two principal works — the Maori lexicon, and my papers on old Maori- 

 lore and matters. They (or their successors) will be also vexed hereafter, 

 but that is no solace to me. They ought to have given every encourage- 

 ment, but . . . 



I am, my dear Professor, yours faithfully, 



W. COLENSO. 



P.S. — I may also add, and that for two reasons, that the thought 

 has crossed my mind that you had forgotten (?) what I had written on 

 the Moa in the paper referred to : perhaps, when you had looked at it, you 

 supposed it to be only my old original paper, reprinted from " The 

 Annals of Natural History," with which it does begin, but a great deal 

 of freshly-obtained information was added. My tioo reasons are : Buller 

 made a similar mistake last year, in his presidential address at Welling- 

 ton, mainly, too, on the Maoris, when he said that "no one had yet 

 written a paper on the subject of their poetry," &c. I was ashamed on 

 reading this, and pointed out to him my long paper on that subject, with 

 translations of songs, &c., in vol. xiii.. Transactions. In reply, Buller 

 said he had " quite overlooked it." (2.) When Remenyi was with me 

 last Sunday we were on this subject (Maori poetry), and I lent him that 

 volume to read the said paper, and my so doing has brought Buller's 

 omission fresh to memory ; hence also this. — W. C. 



1st April, 1885. 



Answers to Professor Von Haast's questions re the Moa, &c. : 



1. What I had gleaned I gave in my paper on the Moa, Trans. N.Z. 

 Inst., vol. xii., pp. 80 et seq. 



2. No ; I don't believe in that myth of Hawaiki immigration as 

 containhig anything real (material, objective) — i.e., appertaining to the 

 Sandwich or to any other islands. (See legend of a saurian pet. Trans. 

 N.Z. Inst., vol. xi., p. 100.) 



3. See answer to question No. 1. 



4. I don't believe in that objective migration ; there are sucli stories, 

 however, re autochthons — strange, quaint, simple, and contradictory — 

 showing their antiquity, but of no value [save to show their utter ignor- 

 ance] . 



5. This question cannot be answered in one word or sentence, as you 



