424 Geology of 



he said, that they have lived in a palaeolithic and neolithic period 

 combined into one. That in the palaeolithic period in Europe, the 

 period of the Mammoth and Rhinoceros, only chipped stone implements 

 were used, cannot be denied ; but I think it has been proved beyond a 

 doubt, that also during the neolithic period in Europe, when polished 

 stone implements were used for the purpose of warfare and manufacture, 

 the chipped implements were not discarded, in fact, for many uses the 

 latter were indispensable, as for instance for carving and cutting ; in 

 that respect, therefore, the Moa-hunters may fairly be considered as 

 having reached the same stage of advance as some of the prehistoric 

 neolithic people in Europe. 



Considering the Moa-hunters from an anthropological point of view, 

 it is of the utmost difficulty, at least for the present, to state with any 

 degree of exactness if they belonged to a race different to the Polynesians, 

 who according to the traditious of the natives now inhabiting these 

 islands, immigrated to ISTew Zealand some six hundred years ago, in a 

 number of canoes, from Hawaiki, or if the mixed character exhibited 

 in the Maoris, has been imported with them, this having been caused 

 by intermixture with Melanesians and Xegritoson their advance towards 

 New Zealand. It would be beyond the scope of this chapter to bring 

 all the evidence forward, which has been adduced from both sides to 

 prove the one or the other, some of the principal traditions are however 

 here given The late Rev. Richard Taylor states in the second edition 

 of " Te Ika a Maui " from what he considers reliable traditions, that the 

 Hawaiki immigrants not only found, when they landed on the coast of 

 New Zealand a black (Melanesian) population, but they also discovered 

 kitchen middens with Moa-bones and flint implements." If these 

 traditions can be relied upon it shows at any rate that the black race 

 before the arrival of their successors had been hunting and probably 

 extirpating the Moa. So when relating the tradition of Manaia, Taylor 

 quotes from Sir George Grey. — " "When he arrived at Rotuhu, at the 

 mouth of the River Waitara, he stopped there and behold there were 

 people, even the ancient inhabitants of the islands, but Manaia and his 

 followers slew them. They were killed and Manaia possessed their 

 abode, he, his sons, and his people, of those men that Manaia and his 

 followers slew that the place might be theirs." According to Taylor,, 

 the same is recorded of Turi who " went on shore and dwelt at Patea 

 and slew the inhabitants thereof" (page 14). This aboriginal race 

 was remembered as the Maero and Mohoao, or wild men of the woods 

 (page 15). Enumerating on page 290, the arrival of the original 



