Field. — Date of the Extinction of the Moa. 565 



I also mentioned that I had been told by a pei-son in 

 Wanganui that his brother-in-law had seen two moas some- 

 where in the Eangitikei district, and apparently inland of 

 Marton or Huuterville, and that on writing to this man Olsen 

 (one of the Danes who came out with Bishop Monrad) I got 

 more reliable information. His letter is as follows : — 



SiE,— Egmont Village, 17th March, 1892. 



You must excuse me for not answering your letter before, as it got 

 mislaid. Mr. A. Harrison informed you that I had seen two moas, but 

 it's wrong ; it was a friend of mme who saw one. There were twelve or 

 fourteen other men who saw it at the same time, and it frightened the 

 life out of the lot of them. They cleared for their bare lives, so he told 

 me. He said that he was frightened when he sav/ it come out of the 

 bv;sh and walk across the clearing as well as them. These other men 

 said nothing about it that I know of; as they were up there on the quiet 

 a-prospecting. There was a great depth of snow on the ground at the 

 time : it was coming on winter. This friend of mine his name was 

 Sutherland. He was a man that any one could speak after. How he 

 came to see it — he got some land up there off the Maoris, and was 

 a-going sheep-farming, but he only got one season up there. In the 

 winter he told me there was from 3ft. to 4ft. of snow on the ground, 

 and the wild pigs devoured all the lambs. The locality is about sixty 

 miles up the Eangitikei River, on this side. If I were where he was I 

 could tell you just the place where the bird was seen. After he had 

 seen the bird he came down that sixty miles on purpose to get a rifle 

 and sixty rounds of ammunition. He stayed with me a night or 

 two till he got what he wanted, and then went back. He told me his 

 intention, if ever he saw it again, he was a-going to shoot it. He de- 

 scribed the colour and height of the bird well to me at the time. He 

 said it must have stood IGft. or 17ft. high, and the body a tremendous 

 size. The colour of it was speckle or greyish colour, with a woolly 

 look. He would not forget the colour, as he must have seen it so 

 plain. 



Now, that happened just twenty- tvv'o years ago this coming winter. 

 You can depend upon this as true to the best of my belief. I have given 

 all the information I can about the moa that I got from the man who 

 told me that he saw it. Now, if you think it worth your while to find 

 Sutherland, he is somewhere in the country, I suppose. It's only twenty- 

 two years since I saw him. I think I have sent you all I know. 



I remain, yours respectfully, 



To Mr. Field. H. Olsen. 



As I happened to know of this man Sutherland as having 

 resided in the locality described, I made inquiry about him, 

 and learnt that he was dead. I, however, found that he had 

 left a son, whom I saw. The young man told me that he had 

 no recollection of his father having mentioned that he had 

 seen a moa, but that he had repeatedly heard old Maoris 

 speak of them as existing in their younger days, and as 

 having disappeared through the wild pigs destroying their 

 eggs, and the large dogs, introduced by the whalers, having 

 killed the young birds — causes which seem very likely ones to 

 have led to such a result. 



The following appeared in the Wanganui Chronicle of 17th 

 June, 1893 :— 



