xxviii Appendix. 



Notes on the Word " Moa" in tlie Poetry of the New Zealanders.* By the 



Rev, James W. Stack. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury , 23rd December, 1874.] 



Transactions 



inferred 



in 



the bird the remains of which are now known by that name. This statement 

 having been questioned, I have again examined the collection of poetry made 



hundred 



composition. I met with the word Moa seven times. 



ngaro i te ngaro a to Moa" Lost (or hidden), 



like the Moa is lost. 



Granting that the poem in which this line occurs is an ancient composition, 



Moa 



the Hawaikian Moa. Succeeding generations probably asked — Where 



Moa 



like 



11 Lost," would be the reply, and then the saying would become proverbial, 



the Moa is lost. But if the phrase, " Ka ngaro i te ngaro a te Moa" 

 in this lament of Ikaherengatu's, is to be taken as a proof of the acquaintance 

 of the Maori with the Dinomis, it is at least a proof that the aged chiefs, who 



sang it, admitted that the Moa disappeared long ago, and not, as some think, 

 quite recently. 



On page 15, " E moa " is evidently a name. 



On page 41, " Moa i roki roki." Moa is a contraction for moana (calm ocean). 



On page 96, "Tu tonu Puhi raki, ko te Moa kaihau." Here Moa 



means a bleak 



of the bird. 



Moa Jcai hau 

 Maoris now i 



On page 133 we find the following curious allusion to the Moa: — "Te 

 inu hou nei e, te Moa." This new bird, the Moa. 



The composer of the sonnet in which this line occurs would hardly have 

 lied it a new bird if the Maoris had alwavs hf^n fami'liar wftli if. 



* Tina paper was received too late for insertion in its proper place in the volume. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst, IV., Art. V. 



