412 Proceedings. 



flora of the country by the rapid spread of fires. It is true that fires probably 

 originated in some districts in the North Island from volcanic eruptions, and 

 that the large open tracts in the vicinity of Tanpo where there are pumice 

 drifts, containing charred wood, are probably of an earlier date than the first 

 arrival of the Maori race, but in the South Ishmd there are no recent 

 volcanos to account for the spread of fires, and there is no other cause to 

 which the conversion of what has evidently been within a modern period 

 forest land, first into scrub and finally into gi'ass land, can be attributed, 

 except artificial fires. 



The co-existence of man with the Moa, and the fact that these gigantic 

 birds were hunted and consumed as food, was long ago recognized, in the first 

 instance I believe by INIr. Mantell, but the question of whether it was by the 

 ancestors of the Maori race now inhabiting these islands was never distinctly 

 raised till last year, when Dr. Haast did so in the first of the series of papers 

 on the subject to which I have referred. 



In this communication Dr. Haast, led by his extensive researches and the 

 study of a magnificent collection of Moa bones, and of the ancient native 

 cooking-places, which are plentiful on the east coast of the province of Canter- 

 bury, adopts the view that the extinction of the Moa was eflfected by a race 

 of men altogether distinct from the Maoris, who belonged to the palaeolithic 

 period, and had passed away long before the Maori settled here. 



The evidence upon which this hyjDothesis is based is of two kinds. First 

 the nature of the implements that were used by the early Moa-hunters, as 

 Dr. Haast terras them, and secondly the supposed ignorance either direct or 

 traditionary, which the Maoris display of the former existence of the Moa, 

 There are other arguments brought forward, but as they are not so direct in 

 their bearing on the question I will not allude to them on the present occasion. 

 The description given of the cooking-places in which Moa bones have been 

 found by Mr. Mantell, Dr. Haast, and other observers, does not indicate any 

 difierence in the habits of the Moa-hunters from the ordinary mode of life of 

 tbe Maoris even at the present day ; the only supposed peculiarity being the 

 occurrence in the ovens of rough stone flakes with cutting edges instead of the 

 polished implements of stone which we are accustomed to see now in the 

 hands of the natives. 



It is hardly necessary to point out, as has been already done repeatedly, 

 that evidence of this kind cannot be considered to establish a difierence of 

 race, for the uses to which the two kinds of stone implements could be applied 

 must have been totally different. It has never been alleged that before the 

 time of Captain Cook's visit the natives were in possession of any cutting 

 instruments made of metal ; and yet as they ate seals, porpoises, and other 

 fleshy animals, they must have had some means of cutting them up, and for 



