108 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



care and the requisite scientific knowledge (liaviug determined the struthious 

 affinities of the birds to which the bones belonged, and pointed out their 

 remarkable characters, ere any intelligence could have reached him of the 

 result of Professor Owen's examination of the specimens transmitted to 

 this country), has given, in his masterly paper before quoted, very cogent 

 reasons for the belief that none of the true Moas exist, though it is probable 

 the last of the race were exterminated by the early inhabitants of these 

 islands." [Loc. cit., p, 235.) 



Addendum. 

 Napier, October 24, 1879. I was very much surprised this morning, on 

 finding (and that by the merest chance, in looking into the " Index, Vols. 

 I.-VIII.") that Mr. Stack, of Canterbury, New Zealand, had some time 

 ago written a short paper containing those passages from Sir G. Grey's 

 "Poetry of the New Zealanders" which I have in this paper adduced 

 respecting the Moa. I had never before this morning seen Mr. Stack's 

 paper ; no doubt this was owing to its being placed in the Appendix at the 

 end of the volume,* and to its extreme brevity. However, had I earlier 

 seen it, I could not have accepted his translation of those passsges referred 

 to, still less his remarks thereon. New Zealand poetry and legends cannot 

 be rendered by any Maori scholar in the South Island; besides, their 

 myths and legends are not now to be found there in their integrity ; 

 indeed, such could not reasonably be expected among such a small remnant 

 of Maoris living isolated among settlers. 



Akt. VII. — Contributions towards a better Knoivledge of the Maori Race. 

 By W. CoLENso, F.L.S. 



[CONTINXJED.t] 



\Itead before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 9th June, 1879.] 



" For I, too, agree with Solon, that 'I would fain grow old learning many things.' " 



— Plato : Laches. 



On the Ideality of the Ancient New Zealandek. 



Part II. — Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings. 



I have long believed that there is much truth in that compendious remark 

 of Lord Bacon, viz., that " the genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are dis- 

 covered by then- proverbs." It is in them, no doubt, that a philosophical 

 mind wiU discover a great variety of cmious knowledge, particularly when 



* Trans. N. Z. Inst., Vol. VII., Appendix, p. xxviii. 

 t For Part I. see Vol. XI., Art. V., p. 77. 



