Taylor. — On New Zealand Lake Pas. 101 



cat have also passed away. Thus the Moa may be said, without doubt, to be 

 extinct in this island, whether it is so in the other is a question still to 

 be decided, and if it should be iirged that so large a bird could not well escape 

 being seen, it may be said in reply that being in all probability a night bird 

 like the kiwi, and one of solitary habits, selecting the most lonely places, and 

 such haunts still abounding in the alpine regions of the south, it is by no 

 means improbable that it still survives. I may also state that the plain of 

 Waingongoro is called Rangatapu, which may either apply to the hunters 

 (the sacred band) or the ovens (the sacred row), and that the name Moa, 

 like that of the roa, was most probably derived from the bird's cry. Amongst 

 the islands to the north the name of Moa is applied to the domestic fowl. 

 The Moa has passed away, and its hunters as well, and the proverb is being 

 fulfilled,— 



Kua ngaro a moa te Iwi nei; 



"The Maori, like the Moa, has passed away." 



Art. IV. — On New Zealand Lake Pas. By the Eev. Richard Taylor, F.G.S. 



[Read before the Wellington PhilosopJiical Society, 9th October, 1872.] 



It is now nearly thirty years since I first visited Horowhenua Lake, which, 

 though not of great extent, is still one of much beauty. I was then struck 

 with its singular appearance from a number of watas, or native store-houses, 

 being erected on posts in the middle of the lake, and seeing the natives ascend 

 to them from their canoes by means of a notched pole. 



When afterwards, in 1854, the remains of villages were discovered in the 

 Swiss lakes, and similar ones, called crannogues, in Ireland, it then struck 

 me that the same practice had formerly prevailed in New Zealand, and 

 especially in the Horowhenua Lake, and that the watas I had seen there were 

 but remnants of the custom. On putting the question to Tamihana Te 

 Kauparaha he said that he recollected two pas being in it, which belonged to 

 the Muaupoko tribe, the ancient owners of the district, and that one was 

 called Te Namuiti, but he could not recollect the name of the other. 



Afterwards I was so fortunate as to obtain from an old chief of the 

 Muaupoko tribe a sketch of the lake, in which he placed six pas, giving me 

 their names and positions. Their sites are still to be seen, as so many islets, 

 covered with a luxuriant vegetation. The old chief also described the way 

 they formed them — first by driving strong stakes into the lake to enclose the 

 required space, then by large stones being placed inside them, and all kinds of 

 rubbish being thrown in to fill up the centre, upon which an alternate stratum 



