McKay. — On the Identity of Moa-hunters and Maoris. 103 



the Rakaia encampment was occupied. This much we may presume, since the 

 plains would certainly form the more suitable feeding ground for such a large 

 bird. Their remains at Sumner would, I think, indicate a time when they 

 were comparatively plentiful, and consequently a time prior to their supposed 

 extinction at the Hakaia ] while the absence of polished tools at the Rakaia in 

 the face of their occurrence with Moa remains at Sumner, does not, I think, 

 prove more than that the occupants of the Rakaia encampment were more 

 careful of their goods than their Sumner brethren. 



Grounding my premises on evidence already produced, it may be contended 

 that a considerable time elapsed from the time that the last Moa was eaten on 

 the site of the Sumner encampment, till were begun the accumulations of 

 moUusk remains aggregated in after times. This interval may have been suf- 

 ficient for the accumulation in other localities of considerable quantities of 

 material containing the remains of the Moa, which may even have been con- 

 temporaneous with part of the after accumulations of shells in the Sumner 

 Cave. This might possibly be looked upon as an admission that the Moa 

 might have reached a very recent, even an historical, period in the history of 

 !New Zealand, but all that is meant is, that it reached a time posterior to the 

 accumulation of some of the shell mounds. How long individual instances 

 may have outlived the general extinction it is not even pretended to say. 



Possibly elsewhere encampments may be found which were occupied con- 

 tinuously, and where the evidence will be found to point to the gradual pro- 

 gression of the Moa-hunter into the fish-eater. The question viewed in this 

 light at once points to the identity of the Moa-hunters and the present inhabi- 

 tants of these islands. 



We have thus seen that the extinction may have been a gradual process, 

 and that many shell accumulations may be contemporaneous with existing 

 mounds containing Moa remains. But it is yet to be proved that these latter 

 accumulations are the works of the present Maori race. For it follows of 

 necessity that these post-Moa-hunter accumulations and those of the modern 

 historical Maori would be very much alike, as were their necessities, and it is 

 by no means clearly proved that the Moa-hunters were Maoris, or vice-versd. 

 Nor will it, in my opinion, prove ought else than that after the extinction of 

 the Moa its destroyers were compelled to live on shell-fish, and in the main 

 subsist by the products of the sea. It would also appear that when the shell 

 mounds of the Sumner cave were accumulated, maize and European products 

 introduced by Captain Cook were unknown, as no traces of such were found, 

 while materials apparently as liable to destruction were found in abundance. 



But, throwing aside this evidence, and accepting as fact that the Moa- 

 hunters cannot be proved identical with the progenitors of the present 



