WEKA PASS ROCK-PAINTINGS. I9 
And as for the Maori traditions, or absence of tradition, their 
statements about their ancestors, fabulous monsters and so on, it 
is not uncommon, I think, to find that different theorists have a 
way of twisting these traditions pretty well in any direction they 
please (as for instance in the case of the Moa), and that there is 
no help to be gained from them when we get beyond a certain 
lapse of time. Practically, beyond say a hundred years, we fall 
into regions of fable with Maori traditions. And I think that 
the general opinion of our party on the point of the antiquity of 
the paintings was simply this, that whilst they undoubtedly are 
older than European settlement here, they may have been exe- 
cuted at any period previous to that; and that is all that can be 
said. 
I am bound to confess that, having so far (as I believe) 
expressed the views which our party were able to arrive at in 
common, I am not in a position to give anything more as the 
result of unanimous or greatly preponderating judgment; for 
the time at our disposal for discussion did not permit us to 
collect, as it were, the suffrages of the whole party upon the 
question, “ Who did execute the paintings?” If I should be 
supposed to hint here that in any reasonable space of time 
(unless direct evidence should be forthcoming) such a decision 
could be reached, I should be sorry. For the question would 
rather seem to be one calculated to exercise the wits of many 
men for a very considerable time. All I mean to convey is that 
we, as a party, could not even approach a definite judgment on 
the point. Many diverse opinions were expressed individually ; 
none were collectively adopted. 
One view, which undoubtedly seems to possess elements of 
possibility, was put forward by our archeological member. The 
large shelter, as I said above, was formed by a long flattish lime- 
stone rock sloping from the ground upwards, as a book might 
be raised from a table on one of its edges. The top formed a 
tolerably level platform, about twenty-five or thirty yards long 
and half-a-dozen wide. In front of this, facing the hollowed- 
out shelter, the grassy slope of the “Basin” rose towards the 
rampart above mentioned, about thirty yards away ; this slope 
forming a hill perhaps two or three hundred feet above the rock, 
and slightly curving round it. The theory propounded was that 
the rock had been used in past times as a natural stage, pulpit, 
or stand for oratory on occasions of large public gatherings, the 
audience being seated on the slope. Certainly no place could 
be better adapted for the purpose. One of our number, to test 
the effect of sound, went away some little distance on the slope, 
and thence could hear with the greatest of ease every word 
spoken from the top of the rock. It is well known that the 
Maori orators, when making speeches, were in the habit of 
running rapidly up and down for short distances, jerking out 
their forcible sentences ; and no better place for these declama- 
tory gymnastics could be found than the rock in question. 
What would seem to lend some colour to this theory is the fact 
