Haast. — Address. 45 



wliole lengtli of the rock below tlie slielter has been used for painting, and 

 it is evident that some order has been followed in the arrangement of the 

 subjects and figures. The paintings are done with a bold hand ; they are 

 well finished, and show clearly that they are the work of an artist of times 

 long gone by, who was no novice in his profession. The paint consists of 

 kokowai (red oxide of iron), of which the present aborigines of New 

 Zealand make still extensive use, and of some fatty substance, such as fish- 

 oil, or perha^DS some oily bh*d-fat. It has been well fixed upon the some- 

 what porous rock, and no amount of rubbing will bring it off. It is evident, 

 however, that the existing paintings, which are already partly destroyed by 

 the scaling off of the rock through the influence of frost and other physical 

 agencies causing weathering, are not the first which were delineated on this 

 rock, because in many s^Dots, and sometimes below the paintings under 

 consideration, faint traces of still older ones are visible. These were also 

 painted in red, but I was not able to distinguish any outlines. 



Thus we have here another proof, if it were needed, of the vast period 

 of time during which New Zealand has been inhabited by man. 



As before observed, the principal paintings are all in red, belonging all 

 to one period, but round and above them appears a mass of others in black, 

 of which some of the best and clearest have also been copied by Mr. Cousins. 

 They are of a more primitive nature, and seem to have been done by a 

 different race of men. That they are not contemporaneous with the red 

 ones could easily be ascertained, by observing that they pass not only 

 indiscriminately over them, but that many of them were only painted after 

 the rock had already scaled off under the red ones, so that they are sometimes 

 painted upon the newly exposed fresh surface. They are all most probably 

 painted with charcoal mixed with some oily animal substance, and are also 

 well fixed upon the rock, but they are generally not so well defined, and, 

 moreover, cross each other constantly, so that it is very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish many of them clearly. 



Mr. Cousins has, therefore, only copied a few of the figures which 

 were the most conspicuous and well defined, mostly situate near and on the 

 roof of the rock-shelter. 



Before giving a description of these paintings, I wish to refer to the 

 native traditions about them, as this will give us perhaps a clue to their 

 origin. It has generally been supposed that such paintings were the 

 work of the Ngatimamoe ;* but the Eev. James "VV. Stack informs me 

 that even a greater age is assigned to them. From a conversation which 

 that gentleman had with Matiaha Tira Morehu, the Maori chief of Moeraki, 



* See " Trans. N.Z. Inst.," I., 18, 2 ed., 5, where several paintings, but of a somewhat 

 clifferent character, are figured. 



