White. — On the Neio Zealand Dog. 585 



Art. LXX. — Te Kuri maori (the Dog of New Zealand). 

 A Beply to the Bev. W. Colenso. 



By Taylor White. 



[Eead before the Haiokc's Bay Philosophical Institute, 11th September, 



1893.] 



In Volume xxv. of "Transactions of the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute " I notice that Mr. Colenso, F.E.S., &c., has attacked me 

 most bitterly because of my presumption in recording such 

 information as I could collect from several correspondents, 

 both in the North and South Islands of New Zealand, giving 

 their experience and recollection of certain unusual canine 

 forms which they had noticed in the earlier days of the 

 colony, &c. 



A good portion of Mr. Colenso's paper consists of quota- 

 tions from the writings of Max Miiller and others, which have 

 no bearing on the subject-matter of the paper. 



I will take the points in Mr. Colenso's paper, before re- 

 ferred to, in regular order, and will use the pruning-knife 

 rather freely, not that I personally wish to differ therefrom, 

 but where it seems that certain points will not stand criticism 

 it is reasonable that they should be traversed, and, moreover, 

 I have no wish to remain under a cloud longer than can be 

 helped. 



Previous to my writing my first paper on the New Zealand 

 dog question* I had seen Mr. Colenso's paper on this subject 

 in the Transactions,! and came to the conclusion that the 

 subject was not "exhausted," but rather was dealt with in a 

 one-sided manner. For instance, why should we be con- 

 sidered limited to one kind or one size in the Maori dog ? 

 We would seem to be able, by inference, to trace one 

 breed of the dog to the islands of the Malay x\rchipelago, 

 where there are many different species of large game to 

 be hunted ; and in such places it is reasonable to expect a 

 dog capable of assisting his master in capturing this large 

 game — forms of wild cattle, deer, pigs, and cassowary, &c. 

 — because, if the Maori race is compounded of the junc- 

 tion of two pure races, the Moriori and the Negrito, would 

 not these mixed peoples have the Papuan dog as well as 

 that of the Moriori ? And, supposing the Moriori people to 

 be the original inhabitants of a great southern continent, now 

 chiefly submerged, we may suppose the dog of pure Moriori 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxii., p. 327. 

 t I/.c, vol. X., p. 135, 



