Wellington Philosophical Society. 419 
But I fear that I have dwelt on this subject at too great a length, being 
led away by the desire to remove the impression that the Moa was limited to 
a palæolithic period, which is characterized by Sir C. Lyell as a period marked 
by a difference in the surface features from those now prevailing, or even that 
a paleolithic period can be recognized at all in New Zealand, as such an 
hypothesis, if incorrect, as I believe it to be, would greatly mislead those who 
are investigating the already complicated subject of the migrations of the 
branches of the human race. 
That the Moa lived and flourished during far more remote periods there 
can be no doubt, but I think the discovery of the bones of the neck of one of 
the largest species, with feathers, skin, and muscles attached, which is now in 
. the Museum, far outweighs all the arguments that can be advanced, and as 
Professor Owen pointed out in his first published paper on the subject, shows 
that the Moa belongs to the same very recent period as the Dodo. I must not 
neglect to notice that in his latest paper on the subject Dr. Haast has modified 
his first hypothesis so far as to say that the Maoris are not a fresh migration, 
but are the direct descendants of the Moa-hunters, and falling back on the 
supposed inferiority of the early stone implements as proof that the Maoris 
had attained a higher degree of civilization, he argues that a great period of 
time must have elapsed to account for that improvement ; but against this 
may be urged that until the Maoris acquired knives from the Europeans they 
must have cut with flakes of stone with sharp edges, whatever their state of 
relative advancement may have been, as they possessed no other implements 
to supply their place. The evidence of the absence of the highly finished 
weapons from the cooking ovens which Dr. Haast describes at the Rakaia 
camping place, while they abound on the surface of the ground, appears to me 
to prove only that the final destruction or departure of the Maoris from that 
locality was rather sudden, and that in consequence valuable articles were left 
lying about which were not likely to be found in cooking-places that were in 
common use. Besides, it is certainly probable that the Moas near the sea 
coast on the Canterbury plains would be among the first to be destroyed, and 
that this particular encampment may have been used from a very early date, 
perhaps a century before the final extermination of the Moa elsewhere. Ona 
revision of the whole question I do not think that the evidence which has 
been adduced proves that the Moas were not existing in Otago in considerable 
numbers less than 200 years ago, and that a few might not have survived to 
within seventy or eighty years; but I am glad to be able to state that 
Professor Owen intends to reproduce in a collected form his valuable series of 
memoirs on the Moa, and he will, I hope, take the opportunity to review the 
different hypotheses which have been advanced on this interesting subject, 
As relating to this discussion, I should call attention to the description of 
