WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4195, 31 August 1874, Page 5

WELLINGTON PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

This society held a meeting in the Maori House on Saturday evening; Dr. Knight, President, in the chair. After the minutes of the previous meeting had been read and confirmed, Mr. T. Cockbcbn Hood read a paper on the probable changes that have taken place in the physical geography of New Zealand since the arrival of the Maoris. Referring to the theory of the extermination of the mon by a race of Autochthones, who had passed away before the Maori came, he mentioned having formerly pointed out that if it be accepted, there appeared much difficulty in accounting for the singular preservation of the remains of these birds. The country had been occupied by men of the present type froiu an era so distant as to permit of various legends being attributed to the memory of great disturbances witnessed by their ancestors. He did not consider it necessary to place the date of their first migration so far back as three thousand years, as proposed hy Mr, Hale and other philologists, nor to accept with Ur. Haast that the moa-hunters may have followed their game from the .furthest south point to the North Cape, before the severance of tho islands took place, in order to believe in the possibility of the progenitors of the present aborigines having seen the Auckland volcanoes in a state of activity, and witnessed the sinking of a crater cone in Taupo, or an eruption of Mount Egmont. He drew attention to the circumstance that the lithological character- of its newer lavas do not differ from those of the more recent eruptions of the volcanoes in Auvergne, ascribed to a period subsequent to tho occupation by man of that country. In support of his views he read an account of a tree found under sedimentary and volcanic deposits near Auckland, which bore unmistakeable evidence of having been cut down with some rude implement; and noticed the evidence of long-continued subsidence, quoting Captain Hutton’s observations upon Arid Island, and alluded to the traditions of the Natives respecting pas buried on the slope of Mount Egmont, and the dispute that lately took place between two tribes as to their respective territories, in consequence of a claim set up regarding this tradition, which was in tho end conceded. He deprecated the reception of tho genealogical traditions of tho Natives by those who at tho same time refused to believe the ones that related to the contemporaneous existence of the moa, and to other matters sure to have made an indelible impression upon their minds, and adverted to Dr. Haast's papers upon the moa hunters, as showing that he himself admitted that the Maori must be descended from tho savage moa-hunters of remote times. He concluded by expressing a hope that every effort would be made to rescue whilst the older Natives remained, who cherished traditions of the past, all those relating to changes in the country, as well as respecting its natural history. As tho Nitornis had been made known by Mr. Mantell, so other rare birds still might ho existing in the recesses of the forests, and he still found. A few years ago a bird was killed, which from the description of the

Natives who found it, left little doubt that within the last ten years the congener of the Cnemioruia existed. ‘ With regard to the tree mentioned by the author as having been found recently in AuckThe Hon. Mr. Waterhouse did not think there was sufficient evidence to show that it had been felled by human agency, and this discovery could hardly he taken as a proof that these islands were inhabited at so early a date as the paper seemed to indicate. He considered that Mr. Hale's theory regarding the early occupation of New Zealand, was open to doubt. Mr. J. A. Wilson was pleased to hear this large and interesting question referred to. He could not, however, agree ■with all that the author of the paper had advanced. There was a philological difficulty- in tho way of the assumption that the Maoris had been long in New Zealand, When Cook first visited these shores, rather more than a hundred years ago, he was rejoiced to find that Tapia, who he had brought with him from the Friendly Islands, understood the Maoris perfectly. Cook states distinctly that Tapia's language and the language of the Indians was the same, differing only in dialect. Coupling this with the fact that barbarous languages change more rapidly than languages having a literature, and that the latter as spoken 500 years ago are almost unintelligible now, we have reason to infer that the Maori language has not been separated from its parent stem longer than the time mentioned by the Natives themselves. That time was from sixteen to eighteen generations ago. The present King Tawhia was the sixteenth in direct descent from Hoturoa, who landed at Kawhia from Tainui canoe, and the genealogies of the principal chiefs whose fathers came in the various canoes Nom Hauwaiki, will all be found to cover a similar period. The Maori genealogies were good evidence, and could be no more lightly cast aside than could be the history of the _ tenure of lands they possessed, and with which history those genealogies were associated. The Maoris tell us that they came together from Hauwaiki, That they rendezvoused at Ahuahu, hence the name of that island, and that they found New Zealand inhabited by the descendants of Tara, of Tawhenna and of Toe. Some chiefs of the present day trace their lineage to this ancient race, which, judging from the traces we have of their language, was probably a previous wave of immigration from a not very dissimilar source. The early history of this race comes to us through the Maoris, and is lost in mythology. The “ ancient men of the island ’ ’ were hospitable to the Hauwaikians, and the latter intermarried with them, but when in the course of some 200 years the Maori element had become sufficiently strong wars ensued in many parts of the island, and the ancients were annihilated in the Upper Thames, Tauranga, Eangitaiki, and Uriwera districts. Such -wars between the races were, however - , not universal, and the East Coast, from Poverty Bay to the Bay of Plenty, was free from them. Mr. Wilson did not think that the recent discovery in the Barrack Hill, at Auckland, could be associated with the Maori race any more than the hand found at the Dome of Auvergne could be connected with the present people of that place. Mr. Kirk thought Mr. Hood attached too much importance to the discovery of the tree in question. It was quite true that the stump did bear marks as if out down by some rude implement, and that a rough stone adze was found at some distance from the tree; but until further evidence had been adduced, or a similar discovery made elsewhere, it was rash to decide finally on the subject. He objected to the conclusions that had been drawn, based only on this isolated fact. Mr. Hood thought Mr. Kirk’s observations most satisfactory and convincing. It mattered not with what, implement the tree had been felled, as long as it was proved that it had been so by the hand of man, and that its situation left no doubt about its antiquity. Mr. Wilson had pointed out with much force and justice the importance in a discussion regarding the age of the Maori race to be given to the consideration of language—but we could scarcely accept the proposition that the inhabitants of all the various scattered islands of Polynesia have migrated from their original home within the last five hundred years. Were it so, there would be some hope of determining even now where that was situated. The dialects have certainly become in places most remote very little altered. He had heard Bishop Selwyn preach in Maori to the Natives of the isolated island of Kappa, by whom he was perfectly understood. But the Polynesians were bold navigators, more so probably in early times than now ; but even recently the Tongan canoes used to go constantly as far as Nea, or Wallis Island, to bring blocks of porphyry, and the ancestors of those Maori chiefs Mr. Wilson has adverted to may probably be descended from fresh adventurers who came in later times to New Zealand. In this manner communication being kept up from time to time, when perhaps the stepping stones between different groups were less remote than now, the difference in the dialects is less than otherwise might have been the case. Mr. Kirk then read two short papers, viz, : On the occurrence of Juncus Camprooarpus in New Zealand, and on a new species of Isoetes. Specimens of the plants were laid on the table.

The following papers by Mr. Skoy were also rea g ; —X. The position of sulphooyanogen among the elements, with notes upon the scries of double sulphooyanides discovered hy him in 1868. 2. On the analogy of cyanogen to oxygen. 3. On the evolution of heat during the hydration of clay slate, clay and coal, 4. Notes upon the formation and constitution of torbanito (Boghead coal), and similar minerals. The two last of these papers announce chemical discoveries of very great interoat. In the third paper it is shown that clay slate, and also anhydrous or dehydrated coal or clay, liberate heat when placed in contact with water, and that this heat is in greater part produced by the combination of water with the substances enumerated. Also that so-called hygroscopic water is chemically combined with the material retaining it. It is further shown that in cases where chemical substitution occurs in solid matters, heat is generated, and this even in cases where the substituting body has a lower equivalent than that substituted. In the fourth paper, Mr. Skey proves that clay absorbs the coloring matter, and also paraffin, from petroleums; and that this is a true chemical absorption, Por this and various other reasons connected with it, ho suggests that torbanite, or the famous Torbane Hill mineral used in the manufacture of paraffin, has been formed by the passage of petroleum through clay beds, the solid portion of tho oil having been retained by the clay, thus producing either bituminous clay or torbanite, according to the extent of the process. He considers the ash of this mineral to he an essential part of it, not accidental as now considered. He proposes to utilise this discovery by purifying colored kerosenes by means of clay, while the bituminous clay thus formed will he useful either for making pigments or as fuel. The President laid on the table a description by himself of some new species of mosses, together with specimens for inspection. A paper on the hot winds of Canterbury was held over until next meeting.