﻿Haast. — Moas and Moa Hunters. 79 



tlie sands, become exposed, as well as those from ancient burial grounds, are 

 all of Maori origin, or if, at least, some of them do not belong to a race distinct 

 from the present aborigines. Unfortunately, I never found any human bones 

 in or near the moa hunters' encampment, to which fact I shall again call your 

 attention in the course of this evening, otherwise they would have offered 

 valuable material for comparison. However, one authority, and that one of 

 the highest we could desire, has already pronounced that some of the skulls 

 found in these sandhills are not derived from the Maori race. Tn the year 

 1868 I sent to Professor Dr. C. G. Cams, the President of the Imperial 

 German Academy of Naturalists, two skulls, which I considered belonged to 

 tbe Maori race, and which were obtained from some sandhills near the 

 Selwyn. That eminent physiologist, upon examining them, informed me that 

 I must have made some mistake, as these skulls could not be of Maori origin, 

 but must have belonged to some other race. Unfortunately, before my answer 

 arrived in Dresden, the illustrious octogenarian had in the meantime passed 

 away, but I may expect to receive shortly, from some other reliable source, 

 drawings of these two skulls, together with measurements, descriptions, and a 

 careful determination of the question as to which human family they approach 

 nearest in their principal characteristics. As Mr. Alexander Mackay, the 

 Native Commissioner, informed me, the natives assert that in the interior of 

 the North Island a race had existed called Maero, which they described as 

 wild men of the woods, and somewhat like Australians. According to the 

 Wellington natives, a member of this race should have lived in a comparatively 

 recent time on the island of Kapiti. It is foreign to the scope of my address 

 to enter upon a discussion as to the manner in which these islands have 

 been peopled. This has been done already by eminent men amongst us, as 

 well as by distinguished savants in Great Britain, Germany, France, and 

 America, without, however, deciding the question ; on the conti-ary, the 

 matter remains more uncertain than ever, and it will be long before it can be 

 definitely settled. 



My next object will be to ascertain how far back we can trace the 

 occurrence of polished stone implements, which, in this province at least, the 

 moa hunters did not appear to have become possessed of. Passing over the 

 well-known localities, such as old Maori pahs, battle-fields, burial and camping 

 grounds, these tools have been found under the roots of huge trees, and in 

 cutting deep di-ains through bogs in the Wellington province, which may be 

 taken as a proof of their great age. In this province the plough has dis- 

 intei'red many on the plains, buried to a depth of several inches with soil or 

 silt. But another instance of still greater antiquity has come under my notice, 

 namely, the discovery of a well-polished stone adze, together with a grinding 

 stone, at the West Coast, about fifteen feet below the vmdisturbed surface, over 



