MOAS AND THREE KINGS

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1932, Page 9

MOAS AND THREE KINGS

\ • EARLY EXISTENCE DOUBT LACK OF PRACTICAL EVIDENCE. AUCKLAND STUDENTS’ VIEWS. Interest has been created among Auckland students of New Zealand history by the suggestion that Abel Jansen Tasman saw moas in 1643 on the Three Kings Islands. The opinion was expressed, says the New Zealand Herald, that tho theoi-y has no foundation in fact. The suggestion was made by Mr. H. Fildes at a lecture on “The First Moa Bone,” recently given by Mr. T. Lindsay Buick at a meeting of the Wellington Historical Society. Commentators in Auckland expressed the view that the occupation of the Three Kings group by. Maoris for a considerable period prior to Tasman’s voyage and the limited food supplies available on the. islands would not have permitted the existence of the moa there. One prominent authority on Maori history said he had not heard of any discoveries of moa remains at the Three Kings, and it had not apparently been suggested by Mr. Fildes that such was the case. As Mr. Fildes had remarked, Tasman’s journal said his men saw numbers of natives on the high hills of the largest island —Maiiawa-tawi, or Great King. They were said to have been of tall stature and to have taken enormous strides. The Auckland student said the general opinion regarding the observations of tho Dutch was that atmospheric conditions produced an exaggerated impression of the size of the natives. It was significant that Tasman, who did not land on Manawa-tawi, had net likened the men to birds. REPUTED PRESENCE OF REMAINS. Regarding a statement that moa bones were found at the Three Kings, it was stated that there appeared to bo no confirmation of that belief. Had a discovery been made, it could not be regarded as proof that the birds existed on the Three Kings. The remains could easily have been taken from the mainland. Maori traditions, which were definite regarding the location and habits of moas and accorded closely with scientific discoveries, were silent concerning the existence of the birds on the islands Tho mainland Maoris had plantations at Three Kings, and the islands were undoubtedly occupied for generations before Tasman arrived. The natives would certainly have destroyed moas for food, and it was highly improbable that the birds could have survived on such. a small land space for any length of time. In any ease, the food supplies available for the birds were most probably inadequate. Had moas existed at the. Three Kings, the Te Aupouri tribe, which inhabited the group, should have had some tradition of them. About the time of Tasman’s visit wars on the mainland had caused a faction of natives to take refuge on the Three Kings, and the name of the Te Aupouri tribe, which now inhabited the Far North, came from this incident. The refugees, standing on the cliffs of Manawa-tawi, and seeing thick clouds of smoke from scrub fires on the mainland, would lament for their home. They eventually called, themselves Te Aupouri, meaning the “dark cloud of snioke.” ORNITHOLOGIST’S VIEWS. Man in New Zealand had undoubtedly slaughtered the moas, although it was thought that a few of the birds lived in secluded portions of the North and the South Islands until late in the 18th century. Mr. R. A. Falla, ornithologist at the Auckland War Memorial Museum,. said the biological evidence was against the existence of the moa at the Three Kings, and he had not heard of the discovery of any remains at the islands. v “I believe that the moa existed, away from the mainland, only on Great Barrier Island aud some of the such as D’Urville, to the north of the South Island,” he said. “.That is in accordance with the results of investigations. The moa was accustomed' to range on extensive, open country, and the whole formation of the Three Kings is against the birds having lived there. At all events, as the Three Kings are to-day, the moa could not have existed there.”