Minutes of Meetings. 7 



found in Otago, and now in the York Museum, of which the integuments 

 and feathers are partly preserved, there was yet a single skeleton restored in 

 such a manner as would be at all suited to the wants of the bird if it were 

 alive. He therefore strongly urged the careful collection of specimens, and 

 that those persons who discovered bones, if they did not consider themselves 

 well acquainted with the subject, should leave them untouched until they 

 could be exhumed by properly qualified collectors. 



Dr. Hector, in proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, remarked that 

 it was highly important to have obtained the expression of his opinions 

 respecting the association of the Moa with the aborigines of this colony, as 

 Mr. Mantell had arrived in this country well qualified for the task by previous 

 training, and had enjoyed favourable opportunities as the first explorer of a 

 large extent of the colony where these birds formerly abounded. The col- 

 lections in the museums in Europe and America show how well he availed 

 himself of those opportunities. He (Dr. Hector) understood Mr. Mantell 

 to incline to the opinion that the Moa owed its destruction to a race of 

 aborigines different in their habits and savage attainments from the Maoris 

 of the present day, though perhaps having the same origin; but while 

 agreeing in this, he stated that he did not attach much importance to 

 the alleged absence of greenstone, and other implements of an advanced 

 stage, from the early Maori ovens ; and explained how the use of chert flakes 

 would naturally suggest itself, as they would be abundantly formed when 

 chert stones were heated and quenched with water in the process of cooking 

 according to the Maori fashion. It would seem as if, when one of these 

 flakes had a convenient shape, such as a knife, cleaver, or spear-head, it was 

 trimmed and sharpened in the same manner as a gun flint, rather than cast 

 away when the edge became defective, and that a race advanced far beyond 

 such rude works of art might yet find it convenient under certain circum- 

 stances to employ them. Dr. Hector alluded to the profusion of Moa 

 eggshells in the ovens of the interior, which showed that the eggs must have 

 been prized as food, and that their consumption must have soon led to the 

 extinction of the birds. 



Mr. Travers remarked, with regard to the origin of the aborigines by 

 whom the Moas were exterminated, that he considered them to be a distinct 

 race, now represented by the Morioris of the Chatham Islands. He 

 impressed on the attention of the meeting the important field which New 

 Zealand offered for ethnological research, and related as a circumstance 

 requiring explanation, that in a circular pit in the Waikato, a number of 

 human skeletons were found in an erect position, arranged round the side, 

 each with a block of wood on its head, and hoped that some one would 

 investigate the matter. 



