5148 THE ZooLocist—NovemMBER, 1876. 
high state of civilization in manufacturing fine polished stone implements 
and weapons. 
“7, The moa-hunters, who cooked their food in the same manner as the 
Maoris of the present day do, were not cannibals. 
‘8. The moa-hunters had means to reach the Northern Island, whence 
they procured obsidian. 
««9, They also travelled far into the interior of this island to obtain flint 
for the manufacture of their primitive stone implements. 
“10. They did not possess implements of Nephrite (greenstone). 
“11. The polishing process of stone implements is of considerable age in 
New Zealand, as more finished tools have been found in such positions that 
their great antiquity cannot be be ede and which is an additional proof of 
the long extinction of the moa.’ 
Many of these “conclusions” will be considered sufficiently 
startling by those who take the trouble to analyse the grounds 
upon which Dr. Haast affects to have arrived at them; but, with a 
view to the sequel, and in order that po injustice may be done to 
Dr. Haast with reference to such of them as are specially under 
consideration in this paper, I think it right to extract from his 
publications the various passages in which he attempts to support 
them either by argument or evidence. 
Dr. Haast, in the ce Damnachans of the New Zealand Institute’ 
(vol. iv., p. 71), says :— 
“ Another argument in favour of this supposition—namely, that Dinornis 
must have become extinct much earlier than we might infer from the 
occurrence of bones lying among the grass—is the fact, proved abundantly 
by careful enquiries, that the Maoris know nothing whatever about these 
huge birds, although various statements have been made to the contrary, 
lately repeated in England; however, as this question stands in close 
relation to the age of the moa-hunting race, I shall leave it until I come to 
this portion of my task. 
“The testimony that moa-bones have been found lying loose amongst the 
grass on the shingle of the plains, together’ with small heaps of so-called 
moa-stones, where probably a bird has died and decayed, is too strong to be 
set aside altogether, or to be explained by the assumption that the bones 
became exposed, as I suggested before, through the original vegetation 
having been burnt extensively. We are, therefore, almost compelled to 
conclude that the bones have, in some instances, never been buried under 
the soil, but remained lying on the surface where the birds died. I cannot, 
however, conceive that moa-bones could have lain in such exposed positions 
for hundreds, if not thousands, of years without decaying entirely. Even if 
