510 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



or think (say) of me, were I, on any occasion when one of his 

 favourite papers was being read, to speak of such in his own 

 •way, using his own language which he so frequently uses 

 towards tis — myself and other Maori philologists — who, if not 

 equally experts, must certainly be allowed to know something 

 more than Mr. Maskell of those Maori matters, to which we 

 have given many years of time and research and study ? I 

 confess to feeling both ashamed and sorry when I read Mr. 

 Maskell's statement re this paper of M. de Quatrefages (bear- 

 ing in mind, as I have shown, the grave omission of many 

 true facts irom its pages), who said that "he was proud of 

 having been the first to bring that paper under the notice of 

 this colony several years ago in the pages of the ' New Zealand 

 Journal of Science,' "'■' and now, with all its errors, omissions, 

 and suppressions, actually bringing it forward again. 



I trust that both Mr. Travers and Mr. Maskell, for whom 

 I have great respect, will forgive me in my thus writing 

 warmly on a matter in which I am so deeply interested, as, 

 from my age, &c., I may never write again. The old Latin 

 proverb is applicable here both to them and to me — " Ne 

 sutor tiltra crepidam " : may we all be enabled to observe it. 



And here I would communicate the very excellent and 

 apposite remarks lately made by Professor Rudolph Virchow, 

 in his Croonian lecture delivered before the Eoyal Society : 

 " Who of us is not in need of friendly encouragement in the 

 changing events of life ? True happiness is not based on the 

 appreciation of others, but on the consciousness of one's own 

 honest labour. How otherwise should we preserve the hope 

 of progress and of final victory in face of the attacks of oppo- 

 nents and the insults which are spared to nobody who comes 

 before the public ? He who during a long and busy life is ex- 

 posed to public opinion certainly learns to bear unjust criticism 

 with equanimity, but this comes only through the confidence 

 that his cause is just, and that some day it must triumph. 

 Such is our hope in our wrestlings for progress in science and 

 art. . . . Happy is he who has courage enough to keep 

 up or regain his relations with other men, and to take part 

 in the common work. Thrice happy is he who does not lack 

 in this work the flattering commendation of esteemed col- 

 leagues."! 



In fine, the prolific root or cause of error with M. de Qua- 

 trefages, and with most of those who have written or spoken 

 on this matter of the Moa — i.e., of the Moa age — arises from 

 their believing in the myth of Hawaiki and the migration 

 therefrom, and in fixing that period at 500 years ago. To 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxv., p. 531, 



t Proceedings Koyal Society, vol. liii., p. 114 : March, 1893. 



