MOA BIRD REMAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 142, 18 June 1931, Page 9

MOA BIRD REMAINS

THE RECENT FIND

A HOLOCAUST AT SOME PERIOD

(By Haro Hongi.)

All finds of moa remains are interesting and informing. None more so perhaps than that just recorded in the "Evening Post" of the 9th instant of eight skeletons found in a cave near Gisborno, following a similar find in tho same district of twelve skeletons, also in a cave. Moa bones have been found- in its ■thousand miles, from end to end of New Zealand. They have been found along both east and west coasts, and genorally,along the interior. They have been found in a variety of situations, such as in caves, holes, earth rents, in ■swamps, morasses, lagoons, and in and along lake borders; in and along flowing rivers (Waiapu), at the seaside (Waiuigongoro, Taranaki), and at tho foot of cliffs. Altogether skeletons of thousands of these birds have boon found, and in the situations here indicated. THEORIES AS TO EXTINCTION. And if th,o remains have been found in a variety of situations, at least an equal* variety of theories have been .offered to account for tho extinction .of the moa. In this report of tho latest find one of those theories has been resuscitated. It is gravely suggested that tho living birds were trapped, in the cavo by the falling of immense boulders. Other theories advanced are that a cooling climate froze the birds and caused extinction. Then there is the theory that Maoris lit fires which burned off tho forests and destroyed the birds; or, that they flvbvo the birds into those places. To that theory another theorist insists that the extinction of the moa was.pre-historic, therefore there' could have been no Maoris_ here to ■ light' those, fires. To that,' again, another protests that Maori stone axes and greenstone tools and :weapons have been found with and under rnoa bones, proving that the Maoris wore hero with the living birds. It remained for Professor Hut ton to advance the brilliant if astounding theory that tho moa bone deposits could be accounted for by the occurrence of primeval floods caused by an eccentricity in the earth's orbit. Tho pity of it is that thore is «ueh a thing- as learned nonsense . TRADITIONS AND EVIDENCES. Of course, the Maori was well acquainted with tho Moa-bird; it was one of his stock foods. He tells tis that the best firewood to use for roasting a Moa-joint was the Korohiko (Veronica): "He Korohiko te rakaiu i tunua ax to Moa." In the same record1 he tells us that the Moa .was fattest in the winter-time, when the sun was at the far north: "Ka rewa o oha hinu; ko to aitanga a te Ka tuoi." He avers that it was destroyed/ By tho fires of Tamatea; or, "Na ,te ahi a Tamatea." And, as if Anticipating that modern theorists would treat of this Tamatea as being .1 Maori chief who wont about setting on fire different parts of this country, and so destroying the birds, he tolls us plainly that Tamatea was a volcanic deity, a personification, in words which render: — One remarkable guardian only O Bon/ had this country, Which was the (Moa-) Kuranui, Destroyed by Tamatea —Thine ancestor — With subterranean godly fire, The fire of Mahuika (another personification) Which was brought to earth's surface By Maui: By that fire- was the birds driven Into swamps to perish; * To latterly vanish; Yea, son: yea. Tamatoa, then, is clearly a volcanic deity, who can use this subterranean godly volcanic fire at will. Aid that firo apparently burned down large areas of forest and fern, of the period. (Instance Mount.Tarawora when it erupted in June, 1886. Tho fiery boulders which it tossed into tho air as balls of fire quickly set fire to the adjoining .bush. Most of our New Zealand forest is composed of after-fire growth, secondary growth. Very little indeed is the result of original and natural growth.' Hundreds of acres of our northern lands are strewn with the boles of splendid kauri trees, which were certainly the victims of volcanic fire, not of fire caused by the Maori. Tane, the tutelary deity of the forest, is one of th-e most i-eVerenced gods' of the Maori.

And what of the Moa-bircls and those o£ many other species which have been found huddled together? Volcanic fires and earthquake jolts apparently caused them to flee in mad panic into the eaves, and so oh, in 'which their numerous remains are now found. And there they quickly perished. Many have been found which actually died on their legs; died while still standing! No doubt they were partly smothered and choked with smoke, and partly overcome by the shock of those jolts. Tho land was rocking and rolling. It was not from idle curiosity that those birds rushed into swamps, lakes, rivers, and caves. Neither were they "trapped." They wore overcome when they reached those places. Nearly all of those caves were, still are, as open as the day.

And it is horo that the short record of tho recent find is particularly' informing: "The skeletons wore covered to a depth of two fept with volcanic ash and pumice. It is supposed that these birds wore sheltering in the c&ye ■when an earthquake took place, dislodging some immense boulders, which.' ■blocked-the entrance." The record — without the theory—is illuminating; it is history-making. It supports to the] full the Maori/statement that the volcanic fire of Tamatea was busy there. The air must have been very thick with volcanic cjecta when so much, is found in the little space of that cave. Tho accompanying jolts which dislodged those immense boulders probably did so immediately after the entrance of tjiose terrified birds.

AYe have proofs that the "birds perished together in their thousands. Not necessarily at tho same time, throughout the country. But, nearly enough so. For the remains from the far north to the far south are in a similar state of preservation. There arc, in the same finds, bones much sounder than others. And, why not so? "Whole families perished together. Naturally, tho l>ori,es of the aged and of the young would not resist alike the process of decay, as would the hones of the mature and Vigorous. There are even hones found of young chicks in tho egg. And, again, some hones ?n tho prime find would ho more exposed than others. But theie was certainly a holocaust of moas at the same period. <

And what of man, the Maori, in those appalling conditions? There are Maori evidences as to that, which may await another paper.