78 Transactions.—Miscellaneous. 
smaller tools, made of bone, a few personal ornaments, as well as of frag- 
ments of canoes, whares, and of wooden spears, fire sticks, and other 
objects too numerous to mention; but by which the fact is established that they 
had already reached a certain state of civilization, which, in many respects, 
seems not to have been inferior to that possessed by the Maoris when New Zealand 
was first visited by Europeans.”* At the same time, if we consider the 
position of the kitchen middens on the dunes in the vicinity of the cave, 
and those which I discovered on the lines of inner dunes, in the neighbour- 
hood of Christchurch, even the most ardent defender of the groundless 
assertions that the Moa only became extinct some 80 or 100 years ago 
must admit that, at least in this portion of the island, these gigantic birds 
were exterminated at a period when the physical features in this part of the 
Canterbury Plains near the sea were different from what they are now ; that 
large lagoon-like lakes have since been filled up, and sand-dunes of con- 
siderable width have been added to those existing. In one word, those 
changes during quarternary times have been of such magnitude that it is 
impossible to estimate, even approximately, the length of time necessary 
for the achievement of such important alterations, worked out by the sea 
and the rivers entering it. 
“And, as in other portions of this island, the deposits in which the 
kitchen middens of the Moa-hunters occur are of similar antiquity, I have 
no doubt that my views expressed on this subject, some years ago, will gain 
general acceptance in due time, although I know that erroneous notions to 
the contrary, when they have once become popular prejudices, are difficult 
to eradicate ; especially when they are supported by one or two scientific 
men in New Zealand, notwithstanding that their assertions never stood the test 
of critical examination, and have been refuted over and over again.” 
I have thus brought the controversy up to the latest moment, and will 
now proceed to state the information given to me, and the circumstances 
under which I obtained it. 
In the course of a professional visit to Napier in the latter part of last 
May, I was introduced to Mr. John White, by the Hon. Mr. Russell, for 
whom he was then acting as interpreter in connection with some native 
transactions. At the time of the introduction I was not aware that Mr. 
White was the gentleman who had, under the auspices of the New Zealand 
Government, delivered the extremely interesting and valuable « Lectures on 
* I have italicised this passage, which, as will be observed, is utterly at variance with 
the sixth “ conclusion ” at which Dr. Haast had previously arrived, as extracted from his 
paper of December, 1871. Driven from his former position, however, he still persists in 
dissociating the Maoris from the implements discovered in connection with the Moa 
remains in this cave. 
