THE VENERABLE MOA

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

THE VENERABLE MOA

WAS HE KNOWN TO MAN?

(By

C.M.H.)

Many years ago, while wandering through a Taranaki bush clearing, the writer happened across an old Maori. He was searching the fallen and rotting timber for fungus, of which he had secured quite a considerable quantity, and as he collected it ho put it in a flax kit slung across his shoulders. We greeted each other, and after a brief conversation were strolling together towards the river when we came to a steep cliff, near the edge of which there lay a little heap of stones, polished smoothly and shining, and about the size of walnuts. At that time I was not acquainted with the meaning of the pebbles, nor how they got there. were sixteen or seventeen stones in the collection. I drew the Maori’s attention to the deposit, whereupon the old man gave a startled exclamation, and explained that they were from the crop/ or gizzard, of a moa. There were no bones lying about, so that if the moa had died on the spot it must have been at a distant period, and the bones had decayed away. The subject of the 'moa has been an interesting one to naturalists through-, out the world, and when in 1839 Professor Owen, from a single bone sent to him in England from New Zealand, was able to startle the scientific world with a statement that there had existed in New Zealand a bird equal in size to an ostrich, that interest was greatly stimulated. It was not long before his statement was fully proved, and . sufficient bones secured to enable a moa skeleton twelve feet high to be pieced together in its entirety. Much has been written about the moa, and the larger number of writers have held the opinion that the giant bird was extinct before the advent of the main migration of the Maoris to New Zealand about the year 1350. Mr. Elsdon Best, in his exhaustive

work, “The Maori,”; states that moa remains have been found in connection with ovens in many places. The living bird was still found when the Maoris arrived, and East Coast natives have preserved a clear account of their ancestors’ first meeting with it. Mr. Best records that the Bay of Plenty Maoris state that their, ancestors exterminated

the moa, and that the last one kicked a native down a hill and broke his leg. ’ The late Mr. Edward Tregear, another noted and accurate historian, stated that controversy had raged for some years among experts as to the time when the moa disappeared as a living creature. Bones of the birds had been found on the surface of the ground and in positions in which it seemed certain that their owners perished only a comparatively few years ago. Parts of a moa, such as a thigh • and the neck vertebrae, had been secured with tho skin and tendons still attached.

So far as Taranaki is concerned, not a great deal of evidence has been collected and recorded, but there is sufficient to suggest that the Maoris of these parts were acquainted Xwith the moa in generations long gone by.

The late Mr. Percy Smith, in his book, “History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast,” states that an old native of the Patea district told him that neither his father nor his grandfather had ever seen a moa, but that his forefathers had hunted and killed it long ago. These giant birds lived in cliffy places, but went out to feed all over the country, eating leaves. When attacked by man the moa stood on one leg and, as the hunter approached within striking distance, the bird kicked forward. If. the hunter was struck he was killed. One way of killing the moa was to spear it. Another method was to strike the ..bird on the leg on which it stood, using a stout pole, which usually brought it down, so that it could be despatched. s The Rev. G. T. Hammond, whose missionary work amongst the Maoris in Taranaki for thirty years brought him into contact with the old learned men of the tribes, states in his last written work, ‘‘The Story of Aotea,” that the ancestors of these people knew the moa. Authorities agree that the Aotea Canoe

people landed at Patea about the year 13'50. This clearly denotes that the moa was not extinct at that date ■ and later periods. The Rev. Hammond states that information he collected from reliable sources “confirmed his contention that the Maoris of the Aotea migration knew the moa intimately and marked its habits and distinguished features. The moa has • long since gone, but it still lives in Maori song.” He further states that the Taranaki coast has furnished excellent specimens of moa re-

mains. Amongst others were those found by Mr. Maxwell, of Rahotu. These interesting relics consisted of moa bones, pieces of egg shell and small combs, evidently fashioned from moa bones, and were found on the beach at Opua, near Opunake. In the early days of the missionaries many moa bones were discovered near tho mouth of the Waingongoro River in the Hawera district, and all along the coast from Taranaki to Wanganui pieces of moa bone and gizzard stones may still be found in the sand drifts.

The late Mr. Newton King secured from his property situated on the Rerekino road, .Uruti, a well-preserved breast bone of a large moa. This district is very rough and broken and -indicates that the moa frequented heavy forest country as well as the more open coastal districts. The specimen secured was presented to the writer by Mr. King, and is now in the New Plymouth museum.

Some ten or twelve years ago moa bones were found at Okato by the late Mr. W. Morton. He collected, them from a high bank on the Kaihihi stream, between the Main South Road and the sea. There were quite a number of bones in this deposit, and they were in a fair state of preservation. All this evidence tends to show that the moa was not extinct when the Maori settled in Taranaki in the fourteenth century, and doubtless for many years to oome the older Maoris will continue to chant, as their’ forefathers did, the praises of the moa hunt, and to lament that this gigantic bird is no longer in existence.