Minutes of Meetings. 7 
found in Otago, and now in the York Museum, of which the integuments 
and feathers are partly preserved, there was yet a single skeleton restored in 
such a manner as would be at all suited to the wants of the bird if it were 
alive. He therefore strongly urged the careful collection of specimens, and 
that those persons who discovered bones, if they did not consider themselves 
well acquainted with the subject, should leave them untouched until they 
could be exhumed by properly qualified collectors. 
Dr. Hector, in proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, remarked that 
it was highly important to have obtained the expression of his opinions 
respecting the association of the Moa with the aborigines of this colony, as 
Mr. Mantell had arrived in this country well qualified for the task by previous 
training, and had enjoyed favourable opportunities as the first explorer of a 
large extent of the colony where these birds formerly abounded. The col- 
lections in the museums in Europe and America show how well he availed 
himself of those opportunities. He (Dr. Hector) understood Mr. Mantell 
to incline to the opinion that the Moa owed its destruction to a race of 
aborigines different in their habits and savage attainments from the Maoris 
of the present day, though perhaps having the same origin; but while 
agreeing in this, he stated that he did not attach much importance to 
the alleged absence of greenstone, and other implements of an advanced 
stage, from the early Maori ovens; and explained how the use of chert flakes 
would naturally suggest itself, as they would be abundantly formed when 
chert stones were heated and quenched with water in the process of cooking 
according to the Maori fashion. It would seem as if, when one of these 
kes had a convenient shape, such as a knife, cleaver, or spear-head, it was 
trimmed and sharpened in the same manner as a gun flint, rather than cast 
away when the edge became defective, and that a race advanced far beyond 
such rude works of art might yet find it convenient under certain circum- 
stances to employ them. Dr. Hector alluded to the profusion of Moa 
eggshells in the ovens of the interior, which showed that the eggs must have 
been prized as food, and that their consumption nftst have soon led to the 
extinction of the birds. 
Mr. Travers remarked, with regard to the origin of the aborigines by 
whom the Moas were exterminated, that he considered them to be a distinct 
race, now represented by the Morioris of the Chatham Islands. He 
impressed on the attention of the meeting the important field which New 
Zealand offered for ethnological research, and related as a circumstance 
requiring explanation, that in a circular pit in the Waikato, a number of 
human skeletons were found in an erect position, arranged round the side, 
each with a block of wood on its head, and hoped that some one would 
investigate the matter. 
