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Cotenso,—On a better Knowledge of the Maori Race. 77 
Art, V.—Contributions towards a better Knowledge of the Maori Race, 
By W. Corzwso, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Hawke Bay Philosophical Institute, 12th August, 1878.) 
* For I, foo, + with Solon, that ‘I would fain grow old learning many 
things.’ ” >> Pato: Laches 
“ Though this be Let aia yet there is method in’t.”—Hamlet. 
On THE [DEALITY or THE AnolENT New ZEALANDER, 
Part I.—LrcENps, Myrus, anp FABLES. 
8 1. Introductory. 
I nave long been desirous of adding what little I may have gleaned on this 
subject during an extended sojourn in New Zealand; and I feel still the 
more inclined to do so through (1) it being now evening time with me, and 
(2) through my having noticed the many crude theories which have been 
broached concerning the Whence of the Maori, not a few of which, by their 
several writers, have been laboriously propped and buttressed with all and 
every item, however insignificant, far-fetched, and vague, they could possibly 
impress and bring forward, but in which, in my estimation, they have 
notwithstanding signally failed, because they laboured to build up a pet 
faney or hobby of their own rather than the truth; some even starting 
with assuming the very proposition which they had to prove.* 
For my own part, I altogether disclaim all such; I have no pet theory ; 
I only seek the truth; to do what little I may towards establishing it; firmly 
believing, as I have already written,{ that in the years to come this, too, 
will be found out and known. : 
For this purpose, then, I shall bring before you on the present occasion 
& few, out of the many, curious old legends, myths, and fables of the Maori, 
preferring those which I have known for many years, which have to do with 
natural and tangible objects, and whieh have not been tampered with or 
&dded to by Europeans, or by Maoris who had imbibed new and foreign 
ideas. 
* Plenty of this will be found in several volumes of the “ Transactions N.Z. Inst.,” 
which, although often attempted to be dressed up in a new fashion, is not new. I append 
8 suitable extract on this subject from an old book, as the work itself is scarce and little 
known :— 
“In respect to the New Zealanders, some have imagined that they sprang from 
Assyria or Egypt. “The god Pan, says Mr. Kendall to Dr. Waugh, “is universally 
acknowledged. The overflowings of the Nile, and the fertility of the country in con- 
sequence, are evidently alluded to in their traditions; and I think the Argonautic 
expedition, Pan’s crook, Pan’s pipes, and Pan’s office in making the earth fertile, are 
mentioned in their themes. Query—Are not the Malay and the whole of the South Sea 
Islanders Egyptians ? To which we reply—When will the spirit of conjecture rest ?”— 
Beauties, etc., of Nature, by C. Bucke; new ed., vol. ii., s. 79; London, 1837 (note). 
In Essay on The Maori Races; Trans., Vol. I., pp. 61, 62, 1st Ed. 
