444. Proceedings. 
“ At about a quarter after seven o'clock, on the evening of the 5th of 
August, and while at work in the bush, observed a light very much brighter 
than the moon, which had just risen and was only two days past the full, 
shining brightly in a clear sky. The light appeared to be a large round ball 
of fire, about the size of the moon, travelling from an easterly direction 
towards the west. The ball of fire burst, and a portion of it apparently 
struck the ground at about 50 to 100 yards from my house at Karori. The 
meteor produced a very strange feeling upon me, but which I cannot 
describe. 
“ There was a rumbling noise at the time of the descent of the meteor.” 
The Chairman, Mr. Braithwaite, and Mr. Steward, remarked that they 
had also seen the meteor referred to. 
Dr. Heetor hoped that such unusual phenomena would be closely 
observed in future. In Europe, the whole of the circumstances would be 
recorded with the greatest accuracy, and he suggested that all who had 
made observations should reduce them to writing, and send them to the 
Secretary. 
2. * On the Orthography of the Maori Language," by J. C. Crawford, 
F.G.S. 
ABSTRACT. 
It was a subject of congratulation to the inhabitants of New Zealand, 
that in the reduction of the Maori tongue to a written language, a system of 
orthography has been adopted similar to that of the languages of Southern 
Europe, inasmuch as the letters are pronounced as they are spelt. 
The Maori tongue has been thereby relieved from the grotesque aspect 
which many aboriginal and Eastern languages have assumed, under the 
attempt to reduce them to intelligible sounds, by the use of the undefined 
and variable English alphabet. It would not be out of place to offer a few 
remarks on the peculiarity of the English orthography, of the application of 
. the same system to the pronunciation of the classical languages, and of the 
effects thereby produced on the inhabitants of the British Isles, and of other 
countries, with whom they have become associated. ; 
The great peculiarity of the English tongue, as distinguished from the 
languages of the European continent, is the number of medial sounds which 
it contains. 
These sounds are represented by the usual Roman alphabet, each vowel 
having, in consequence, to do duty for a great variety of sounds, which 
makes it so difficult for the foreigner, accustomed to well-defined sounds in 
his own language, to acquire the correct pronunciation of the English 
us cause, the defect of what may be called vowel-deafness has 
