542 Proceedings. 



notices of their habits and customs, have been collected and become available for pur- 

 poses of comparison. But it is obvious that the necessary materials for settling this 

 question will be incomplete, if we, on our side, neglect the opportunity, now rapidly 

 passing away, of putting upon record all that can be learnt upon the points at issue, 

 from the Maoris themselves, whose tohungas^ or chief priests, are in possession of much 

 lore bearing upon them. 



In Dr. von Haast's recent address as President of the Philosophical Institute of 

 Canterbtiry (which will appear in the forthcoming volume of the Transactions),* that 

 learned gentleman discusses the antiquity of certain raddle and charcoal marks upon 

 some limestone rocks in the Weka Pass, on the line of road between Canterbury and 

 Nelson, which (on the authority of one Matiaha Tira Morehu, a Maori residing at 

 Moeraki) he attributes to a race of people called Ngapuhi (whom he characterizes as 

 " somewhat mythical"), to whom Matiaha also attributes "the extinction of the moa and 

 the heaps of pipi shells found in the mountam ranges," on the ground, as to the latter 

 fact, that the supposed people were great travellers. But Dr. von Haast thinks he has 

 found out what would certainly be a point of great importance if correct in regard to 

 these so-called paintings, namely, that the "mythical Ngapuhi" were in the habit of 

 using "some oriental language" (previously identified by him as the "Tamil," from 

 comparison of what he terms fragments of letters with the inscription on Mr. Colenso's 

 bellf) for the purpose of describing the wretchedlj^ rude figures drawn on the rocks. 

 Except a very fan sketch of a hat (something like a bishop's hat) which, if it be intended 

 for a hat, speaks for itself, the figures certamly require explanation, but the learned 

 doctor's theory as to the origin of these scratchings would, if accepted, lead us to the 

 remarkable conclusion that " a people sufficiently civilized to teach their children read- 

 ing and writing in some oriental language," and who used it to indicate the meaning of 

 the very rudest drawings upon a rock shelter, should have left no other trace of their 

 civilization, and should have been content to carry cockles for food, from the sea-shore 

 to the distant Southern Alps. I notice this remarkable portion of Dr. von Haast's 

 address in order to show how utterly indefensible it is to indulge in such speculations on 

 the bare authority of an illiterate Maori, descended no doubt from some Ngatikahungunu 

 mit^rant, whose knowledge of the South Island and its former inhabitants only dates 

 from the well-known migration of a part of that tribe, some 200 years ago. 



It will be seen from the foregoing remarks, that problems of very great interest are 

 presented to us for solution, and that the difficulty of solving them is in no degree 

 lessened by such ill-advised speculations as those to which I have referred. But let me 

 enquire further what we have to do. We have, in the first place, to perfect the classifica- 

 tion of our own fauna and flora — a work in which we are happily assisted by some of the 

 greatest living writers on natural history. We have then to determine the relations of 

 our fauna and flora to those of other countries — a work for which perfect materials will 

 not be attainable for many years. We have, moreover, to carry back our enquiries on 

 these points into past geological periods, in order to ascertain what relations the existing 

 natural productions of these islands bear to those of which the remains have been pre- 

 served to us in the great " Stone Book" of Nature; and for all these purposes it is 

 essential that we should be unceasing in observation and careful in its record. 



In order to illustrate the nature of the labours cast upon us, let me again refer to 

 the history of the great struthious birds which formerly roamed over the plains and open 

 places of these islands. The fact of their former existence has, as we know, been long 



* Ante, Art. IV. t Trans. N.Z. Inst., IV., pi. 2a. 



