Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 529 



all the principal results of my excavations had been published without my 



permission or consent, and that thus a most flagrant breach of faith and trust 

 had been committed. 



Here are the facts of the case. 



About three years ago, when examining some geological sections near the 

 gorge of the Ashley, I found there a man of the name of A. McKay, usually 

 working as a labourer at the flax-mills in that locality, but, having once been a 

 gold-miner, he had been instructed to drive a gallery upon a supposed coal seam. 



As this person appeared to be very fond of geology, and to have a great 

 thirst to learn something, he was very anxious that I should take him with 

 me on one of my journeys to look after the horses, etc., and upon his earnest 

 solicitations I engaged him shortly afterwards for such purpose. 



^Returning from a journey lasting some months, during which I had found 

 him zealous, I employed him in menial work at the museum, and sent him 

 afterwards to collect fossils at the Waipara ; during all that time I had been 

 lending him books and doing everything in my power to help him on. 



When I had collected the necessary funds for the expenses of the 

 exploration to be undertaken in the Sumner Cave, I took him there with 

 another working man I had engaged for the purpose, to make the necessary 

 excavations under my own directions, and, as my report shows, superintending 



direct 



proceedings in every respect. 



discoveries 



hands 



written 



any one else with these matters. 



"When there was sufficient material collected, I took the same with me for 

 deposition in the museum, properly labelled, and only in the last week, when 

 great quantities of kitchen middens, both of Maori and moa-hunter origin, 

 were obtained near the entrance of the cave, were they brought up together at 

 the termination of the work. 



As I thought I could place full confidence in the man's honesty, I explained 

 to him always the nature of every object discovered (he did not know the 

 difference between the bones of a bird and of a mammal), but, to give him real 

 interest in the work, I not only spoke unreservedly before him about the 

 results obtained, with scientific friends I took down during the time the 

 work proceeded, but gave him also freely my views about the whole bearings 

 of these interesting excavations, and when the work was finished, and he asked 

 my permission to write me some notes on the same, I — taking an interest in 

 his advancement — encouraged him to do so, which notes, three or four pages 

 in quarto, if I remember rightly, after reading I tore up as of no value to me. 



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