THE MOA PERIOD.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 307, 21 September 1908, Page 4

THE MOA PERIOD.

—» , . ■INTERESTING VIEWS, To THE EDITOE. Sir,—Since writing -you in reference to the moa,' the communications which I have received from various sources testify to the in-, to'rest taken in the subject even in most un-: ~ expected quarters. I have also received further information bearing upon the question of the period when the moa ceased to exist upon the North Island} and the evidence thus obtained is confirmatory of the attitude which I took up in.my previous letter regarding the approximate date of its extinction. In my previous letter I -told of the .old chief's statement that the Maoris feared to get too close to these great birds as -they kicked so hard, and I have lately seen in Sir. White's collection a tradition which tells of a young Maori warrior who, comparatively recently, followed a wounded bird up a • hill,. and -had his leg broken ,with' a kick. Mr. Mair, engineer .to -the Rangitikei County Council, recently told me of a moa chick that was captured near Moawhango in 1865. I have recently; spoken to a half-caste, now an old man, who was brought up largely by his grandfather, an old Taupo chief, and when a little boy he; greedily .drank in the traditions of tho past which his .aged relative loved to dwell upon round the fire at night. Tho old chief spoke much of the moa, . and the halfcaste, a very'intelligent man, appears to ' believe that there were most certainly moas in 'Existence in the early part of last century. He himself picked up a moa's egg lying on the surface of, the ground in the forest. "Why," I asked him, "if the moas comparatively recontly existed, in flocks, why did they disappear so suddenly?" "Why, I cannot tell," was his reply. But in. reference to this question my friend) Mr. Field, suggests a, most probable solution of the problem, and that is that in all probability the wild pigs were, largely responsible for their disappearance, as they would eat the. eggs. lying in perfectly unprotected nests upon the ground., > ... . The half-caste tells me, upon the authority of the old chief, that the moas had, as ho called it, " cemeteries," that tho birds always went to die in,- in-a -most restricted .area of burial ground. But to me tin most mysterious -and interesting' traditions are those in which it is alleged that tho moas were very frequently to be seen on the cliffs overlooking the .'Sea on the East Coast, and always look- : ingfiaway eastward over the waters of the Pacific. And this gave rise to the suppositiontlthat .the birds lived by _" sacking; the wind." But putting; aside this absurd" idea,the [.interesting ' question remains by what motives tvere the birds actuated in taking up la position on these cliffs, and ' gazing wistfully to tho east. That .they did so I have no doubt, as in this case the light of tradition appears to shine with no flickering. j'flame. I am- about to suggest' what many will feel .inclined to regard as a farfetched, if not wildly improbable, solution of the problem. I am strongly of opinion that in tne r@jnote past vast continents existed in these southern seas, of which tho little islands which we inhabit are .by comparison . an insignificant remnant. Tho vast quantities' of e'stuarial deposit .in this > island would appear to furnish proof of this supposition. Also the existence of kawhai, tutu','-. and fuchsia —konmi —along" the west coast; of South America would seem to indicate, at any rate a very much closer connection that which exists to-day, and the mere''existence of such a- bird as tho moa would in itself .suggest that a continent lay, where to-day run the' dark, rolling waves of the pacific; and for the' reaso'n that the moa -was presumably evolved on vast plains, or prairies, of which the grea,t bird was the product. It was neither by choice .a , bird of the forest nor of the mountain, but, liko the emu and ostrich,_ "its abiding place," to use a Maori expression, was on tno plains. 'And'.under all the circumstances is it not justvpossible that when congregated on tho cliffs,' looking eastward over the Pacific, it mayghavo been in obedience to an instinct r whicn had come down through many generations} and caused them to gaze in the direction of grea.t savannas which had been, at a remote period,-the cradle of their race?

I will briefly present an analogous case which is found in the sober realms of fact. Herds of deer have been known to congre-gate-on the seashore in the north of Scotland, ' and swim away put to sea, always,' it' is. said, hea.ding in a north-easterly direction/ and this has given rise to the suppos'itibn that in the remote psst land had existed which is to-day covered by the waters of the German' Sea. I_ have never heard of a well authenticated instance'of tho discovery of human bones in proximity to thoso of the moa in any of the older formations, but there are dim . and shaddwy traditions of a much inferior people in occupation of New Zealand anterior to the arrival of tho Maoris ~frpm: the . islands of . the, Pacific. ' In' this" connection 1 would' particularly call the attention of those in-: terested in the subject to Mr. Field's account of :,the, discbvery : 'of two skeletons which were-. -ho told me, ''unquestionably thoso of other than Maori race." And here I would remark that Mr.' Field's extremely high character in itself furnishes a guarantee of the absolute authenticity... of any -of his contributions in reference t-o* thoso subjects which v/ijl.become .increasingly interesting as tho years roll on: and to that I would-, add that lie is entitled to . the gratitude of the people of Now Zealand for the extremely interesting and valuable information which he' now imparts, through the agency of- your columns; "

I had. much interesting conversation with Sir George Grey, in reference to the question of the existence. of an inferior .prehistoric race, and kindred subjects, but he discredited the.tradition to which I have alluded, Believing that,'had'another people been in occupation when the first Maori adventurers arrived, they wonld have left traces in the nomenclature of the country. This he had noticed in South Africa, after waves oi migration or .conquest, and he also pointed oiit a similar instance in Scotland, after a'; Scandinavian• •.pronation of'the country,,; !as far south, as''.the Caledonian Canal. I found, during, intercourse with the late Sir:, Walter Buller, -and'.' also with the late Mr. Alex; Macdonald, of Shannon, that neither or these' gentlemen—although both were sataratod: with Maori tradition and legendary!; lore—would • give expression to anythingapproaching dogmatic opinions in referenco.to the alleged existence of an inferior prehistoric race. But bow interesting and suggestive are these researches; they place beforo us in concreto form tlio historic .dictum of Burke: "What shadows we aro, and what shadows we- pursue." Tho moa has gone; and prehistoric races—if they ever' existed—have... also disappeared, but tho Maoris seem ,-to be pre-doomed to absorption by the peoplos who will occupy these beautiful islands in tho years which aro to come.—J I am, etc., ' .-' 11. C. BRUCE. Ngaruru, September 14. [Tho following letter was written by Mr. H. C. Field to Mr. 11. C.- Bruce, and has reference-to the foregoing.] • _ Sir—You are quite right as to my having said 'I had met Maori's who had seen and hunted tho moa. Soon o.fter I eame to Wanganui in 1858 I found that persons like the Rev. R. .Taylor and Mr. H. Churton were of opinion that tho bird had only receritly become extinct,'if somo-possibly were not still surviving,; and thus I .'took the opportunity of asking questions on the subject from old Maoris. Thus I got information from To Marao, Ka.wana Paipai, Tamati Pana, and Pehi. Turoa, of Wanganui, and' from Aperahama llaniera Ngarangi, Hare Tiptina, Irai Koraka, and Hono Tope, of Waitotara, qjl'of whom had hunted the bird, and seemed to know its habits well. Thus I came to the ' conclusion that the birds existed in this part of New Zealand .ccrtainly up to 1820 or 1830, and they lived in the bush, perhaps more in the scrubby skirts than in the dense forest, as well as in the open country, and fed. on vegetable food, particularly on grasses and'similar vegetation. I noticed the curious fact' that amorphous quartz pebbles, though very rare among our gravels, always occurred in heaps or clusters of 20 or more .when they lay on the surfaco of the ground, and the Maoris accounted for this last fact by saying that these patches showed where a moa had been killed, and

its crop turned out, as tlioy said tho birds always selected such stones for digestive purposes. Old Aperahama also tokl mo that tho birds fought each other with their feet. I thought ho meant that they sprang at ieach other, as ,fowls do, but when 1 suggested this 'ho sft.id "No," but that they . stood on one leg and struck forward with tho otlior. This seomed to mo so curious that I montioned the statement to Mr. (after- • wards Sir W.) Bullor, who said it was cliar- , actoristic of all tho struthious birds, and ! this was corroborated afterwards by the curator of the Botanical Gardens at Wellington, who told mo that tho cassowary which was formerly in tho gardens did so, and had :torn his clothes in -tint way. The late Mr. G. Roes, native interpreter, told mc that, about tho year 1830, tho Taupo •chief, To Heu 'Heu, gave a groat feast at his pa near Tokaanu, and that tho flesh of a moa was cooked on the occasion. A Maori who had been at tho feast, anil from whom Mr. Rocs secured his information, said tho bird's skin was as large as a bullock. Old Waikanae Natives told me that their forefathers tamed tho birds and kept them as pets. I -fancy that, like the ostrich, tho moa laid its eggs in sand. At all events, the ; broken pieces of shell used to be plentiful among the sandhills hereabouts, and were comparatively fresh during my early years in tne colony; though afterwards they so far perished that they would hardly bear handling. There is a small skeleton in our Wanganui Museum in which not only the .bones are' perfect, but :the horny trachal' rings of tho windpipe still .exist, and this could not have belonged to a bird that had been very ■long dead, f myself often found, between Nukumarji .Station and the river crossing of tho Waitotara River, the bones of a moa, which had only, just been exposed by a >gale, and these had .evidently been cut to pieces, and had tho flesh'cut off them by a sharp weapon of tho tomahawk or bill-hook type. The .examination of .the. bones proved (that the cuts had'been made while the bones <wero quite fresh, directly after the bird was killed. I sent the bones to the' Wellington Museum, and they were exhibited and discussed 'at a meeting of the Philosophical Society.' I think I mentioned to you the roar of the moa having been heard by the late Mr, Alexander Murray at Day's Bay, Wellington, in the early forties, and by the late Major Lockett near Collingwood some years later, as, well as a boy having been frightened by such a bird at Ma.ngatipona in tho Wangaehu Valley, .soon after Beard took up the' run there. ' . You asked me the other day about some bones of the Negrito race which preceded the Maoris, and which I had mentioned having seen. At the moment I did not recollect to what you referred, but I remembered afterwards. When the Pukerimu Itoad, in the Okehu Valley, was being formed, th.o contractors found two .skeletons at different places. Both had evidently been buried' in sandy layers between seams of shell rock. I saw the bones, which were much smaller than any Maori ones which I have ever met with, and the mode of interment was not Maori. Yours faithfully, H. C. FIELD. • Axamoho, September 9, 1908. '