Haast.— Address. 45 
whole length of the rock below the shelter has been used for painting, and 
it is evident that some order has been followed in the arrangement of the 
subjects and figures. The paintings are done with a bold hand; they are 
well finished, and show clearly that they are the work of an artist of times 
long gone by, who was no novice in his profession. The paint consists of 
kokowai (red oxide of iron), of which the present aborigines of New 
Zealand make still extensive use, and of some fatty substance, such as fish- 
oil, or perhaps some oily bird-fat. It has been well fixed upon the some- 
what porous rock, and no amount of rubbing will bring it off. It is evident, 
however, that the existing paintings, which are already partly destroyed by 
the scaling off of the rock through the influence of frost and other physical 
agencies causing weathering, are not the first which were delineated on this 
rock, because in many spots, and sometimes below the paintings under 
consideration, faint traces of still older ones are visible. These were also 
painted in red, but I was not able to distinguish any outlines. 
Thus we have here another proof, if it were needed, of the vast period 
of time during which New Zealand has been inhabited by man. 
As before observed, the principal paintings are all in red, belonging all 
to one period, but round and above them appears a mass of others in black, 
of which some of the best and clearest have also been copied by Mr. Cousins. 
They are of a more primitive nature, and seem to have been done by a 
different race of men. That they are not contemporaneous with the red 
ones could easily be ascertained, by observing that they pass not only 
indiscriminately over them, but that many of them were only painted after 
the rock had already scaled off under the red ones, so that they are sometimes 
painted upon the newly exposed fresh surface. They are all most probably 
painted with charcoal mixed with some oily animal substance, and are also 
well fixed upon the rock, but they are generally not so well defined, and, 
moreover, cross each other constantly, so that it is very difficult to dis- 
tinguish many of them clearly. 
Mr. Cousins has, therefore, only copied a few of the figures which 
were the most conspicuous and well defined, mostly situate near and on the 
roof of the rock-shelter. 
Before giving a description of these paintings, I wish to refer to the 
native traditions about them, as this will give us perhaps a clue to their 
origin. It has generally been supposed that such paintings were the 
work of the Ngatimamoe ;* but the Rev. James W. Stack informs me 
that even a greater age is assigned to them. From a conversation which 
that gentleman had with Matiaha Tira Morehu, the Maori chief of Moeraki, 
* See “ Trans. N.Z. Inst.," I., 18, 2 ed., 5, where several paintings, but of a somewhat 
different character, are figured. 
