Moas and Moa-hunters, 161 



refuses to admit a veiy great antiquity for the destruction of 

 the Moas. He also recognizes that the Maori traditions 

 contain some allusions to these birds. In his childhood he 

 heard talk of Moa-feathers found upon a rock where the last 

 of these Brevipennes had concealed itself. However, he also 

 thinks that this may perhaps have referred to feathers of 

 Cassowaries brought to New Zealand by the ancestors of the 

 Maoris*. We see that Mr. Stack does not regard the latter 

 as descendants of the autochthonous Moa-hunters supposed 

 by Dr. Haast. 



Upon this latter point, moreover, the ideas of the New- 

 Zealand geologist do not appear to be by any means fixed. 

 I hav^e reproduced above the terms employed by him in the 

 conclusion of his third memoir, and have cursorily indicated 

 how vague and contradictory they are, notwithstanding their 

 apparent precisionf. In another memoir he expresses a verv 

 different idea, and regards the Melanesian negroes as havin'o- 

 preceded the Maoris in New Zealand, and ascribes to them 

 the extermination of the Moas J. Moreover, in support of his 

 new opinion he invokes only those very traditions which we 

 have seen him reject in the most formal manner. Still, he 

 only knows them fi-om the Rev. Richard Taylor's book. It 

 is from this that he borrows a quotation from Sir George 

 Grey, whose classical work § he does not seem to have read. 

 Lastly, in his geology of the province of Canterbury, he 

 formally adopts Mr. Colenso's views, and repeatedly speaks 

 of the predecessors of the Maoris as autochthonous inhabitants 

 who lived in the Quaternary epoch. At the same time he 

 supposes that these children of the soil of New Zealand had 

 more or less close affinities with the Melanesians ||. 



I have too often contended against this old idea of autoch- 

 thonism, to render it necessary for me to revert to it here. 

 But this conception being got rid of, I am glad to agree with 

 L)r. Haast. The opinions maintained by the learned geologist 

 as to the existence of two races inhabiting New Zealand 

 before the arrival of Europeans, and as to the nature of those 



* "Notes ou Moas and Moa-hunters'' ('Transactions' &c vol iv 

 p. 108). ■ ■ ' 



t See the notes at foot of p. 140. 



\ "Notes on an Ancient Native Burial-phice "' ('Transactions' &.c. 

 vol. yii. p. 91). Dr. Haast has subsequently insisted upon this idea and 

 sought to show, by what takes place in AustraHa, that very inferior bhick 

 tribes may very well know the processes of polishing stoiie (' Geoloo-y of 

 the Provinces of Oantfrbury and Westlaud,' chap. xvi. p. 411). 



§ Polynesian Mythology. 



II ' Geology,' &c., tirst proposition, p. 430. 



