OTAGO INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2055, 13 July 1893, Page 24

OTAGO INSTITUTE.

The monthly meeting of the Otago Institute was held on Tuesday, evening at the Museum. Dr Hocker, president,, occupied the chair, and theri Jwas a fair attendance/ The Chairman announced the election of four new members— Dr Gordon Macdonald, Messrs D. A. M'Nicoll, J. ,S. Tennanfc, and J. H. Hosking. : - Mr D. Pbtbie contributed a paper upon 0 Tnirteen Newly Discovered Species of New Zealand Flora " The' majority of these, he said, were found on- an excursion to the West Coast, and one or two were found in Otago. Dr Parker exhibited a number of models of extinct aaimals which, during his recent visit to England, he had purchased for the Museum, and two specimens of fish — a sea bream and a silver ccl — obtained in Dunedin. Mr A. Hamilton contributed some notes on " Modes of Maori Burial," being the first part of a paper on " The Mortuary Customs of the Maoris," in which he described the burial caves of the North Island. In one of these, he said, he saw the bones of the deceased persons paoked on shelves cat in the rock. In some parts there was the custom of putting the remains in old hollow trees, while the common people were buried any where-^often in the shell heaps around the camps and in the sandhills along the coast, line. r There were many varieties of poßture and position Of the dead. In the South Island the mode of burial seemed to be altogether different from that of the North Island, and a Native who was now living had told him it had been the custom to barn the bodies of the chiefs and persons of rank. The Chairman remarked that there was no doubt that the Maoris carried out their burial ceremonies with the most absolute secrecy. They would go to the^ most inaccessible mountain heights, generally at night time, so

as to ensure that the grave of a chief should be unknown and nnfound.