CoLENSO. — On Moas and Moa-hunters. 505 



Canterbury Museum, Cliristchurch, 

 My dear Mr. Colenso,— 12th October, 1885. 



Your welcome letter of the 28th August came to hand in due 

 time. I tliink I wrote to you that the box with the l\Ioa bones had 

 arrived, but I have been so overwhelmed with work that I have hitherto 

 not found the time, but will now in the first free moment proceed at once 

 to business. I have examined your bones at various opportunities and 

 found them extremely difficult, as I have no material from the North 

 Island for comparison, and Owen having only described but one type- 

 specimen of eacii of his so-called species ; consequently I only can give 

 you my own personal views. . . . [Here follow his desci-ij^tious, &c., 

 of the bones.] As our court will be so crowded with industrial exhibits, 

 my space for other scientific things will be much curtailed. IMoreover, I 

 do not like to take the responsibility about the bronze bell; but I should 

 like the early prints, and some specimen sheets of the IMaori dictionary. 

 I hope and trust you will enjoy good health, so that this grand work will 

 be finished by you in comfort. Your case witli the IMoa-bones will be 

 returned by the first steamer. Yours faithfully, 



Julius von Haast. 



The sequel to my self-imposed task and long paper is soon 

 told. In due time I received from London the copy of M. De 

 Quatrefages' paper, but on its arrival, Dr. Von Haast being in 

 England, and I otherwise engaged, I did not again take it up, 

 and so it has been down to the present day, for I had written 

 largely and (as I thought) exhaustively on the Moa in my 

 paper in vol. xii.. Transactions, and, having done so, I had 

 done with it. Further, I awaited the return of Sir Julius von 

 Haast, and then when he did return to Cliristchurch he so 

 shortly after unexpectedly died. 



Before, however, I quit this subject (of the Moa), as I 

 am never likely to write it over again, and as I have shown 

 how translations from Maori have been amplified, and more 

 than once mentioned Mr. John White and his manner of 

 florid translating Maori into English, I would leave on record 

 a notable instance of his dealing in this important matter of 

 the earliest and only mention of the Moa in Maori legendary 

 narrations. 



In my paper on the Moa (I.e., Transactions, vol. xii.) I 

 had particularly referred to the short ancient legend of 

 Ngahue, and the casual mention there of the Moa in the 

 original Maori,* and the grave omission of the main (?) 

 portion of it relative to the Moa in the English translation.! 

 I give in a note below the simple Maori sentence containing 

 these words in English. \ 



* Grey's "Mythology and Traditions of New-Zealanders," 1st ed., 

 p. 68 ; 2nd ed., part ii., p. 70. 



t 1st ed., p. 133 ; 2nd ed., pait ii., p. 82. 



\ " A, haere ana " (a Ngahue), " noho rawa atu i Arahura, ka tuturu 

 te noho i reira, katahi ka kowhakina mai e ia tetehi walii o taua ika, ka 

 mauria atu e ia ka hoki atu ka tae a Ngahue ki te Wairere ka patua te 

 Moa, ka haeie Tauranga, Whangaparaoa, ka hoki ki Hawaiki, ka korero 

 kua kite ia i te whenua tona kai he pounamu, he Moa." 



