SKELETON OF A MOA.

Shannon News, 16 October 1925, Page 4

SKELETON OF A MOA.

ALMOST COMPLETE SPECIMEN. THE WAIKAREMOANA FIND In a humble soap box under a table in one of the rooms at the Dominion Museum, Wellington, lie the bones of a moa which roamed the-shores of Lake Waikaremoana at least as long ago as the days when Magna Charta was signed and perhaps when William the Conqueror was .invading England. The skeleton, which is almost complete, was found some six weeks ago in the rough country on the eastern side of the lake and has just been brought to Wellington by Mr H. Hamilton, of the museum staff. . Only five or six complete moa skeletons are in existence. There are three great leg bones which fitted together stand as high as an ordinary man and are as thick and massive as the leg bones of a horse. There is the pelvis bone of huge size and the vertebrae of the neck, which set in order one on top .of the other would raise the head of the moa twelve feet off the ground. Unfortunately the head is missing. It was too far gone in decay to be worth transportation for it had been exposed to the act.»on of the weather, more than the other parts. The story of the discovery of tlit skeleton was told by Mr Hamilton in a sort of inquest held over the remains. It appears that a pair of . opossum hunters, trapping in the t/oken country by the lake saw something lying between two enormous rocks, ridged together to form a sort of tunnel, a collection of bones which they felt were not those of an animal They did not disturb the bones and on their return to the hotel mentioned what they had seen to Mr A. Keen the Tourist Department's ranger in the district who went with the trap> pers to the spot. This was about fifty yards from the water's edge of the lake, among a mass of rocks turned up by some natural convulsion of the past to form a sort of dam to the outlet of the waters of the lake, and thus make possible one of New Zealand's great hydro-electric schemes. The bones were proved to be those of a moa, a solitary specimen which had doubtless gone into this natural tunnel among the rocks to die. This i? the- theory of Mr Hamilton, who went up to the district on behalf of the museum shortly afterwards, j This locality, according to Maori* legend is the home of the last of the moas, said to have been slain by Happ one of the early voyagers. That th* 1 Maoris actually saw a live moa is verj much scouted by the best authority to-day, according to Mr Hamilton 1 who pointed out that while the minutest details were preserved of tin* Maori methods of snaring, catching or limiting other birds, fish and the native rat, there was no such authentic record about the moa. As the Maori was generally considered on his traditions to have come to New Zealand about 700 years ago scientists held that the moa must have been extinct for at least that length of time while it was unlikely that the Maori himself ever came across a live moa.

The Moriori and other races in New Zealand, before the advent of the Maori, unquestionably came into contact with the big bird. In a cave in the schist in Central Otago, Mr Hamilton's father, the late Mr. A. Hamilton former director of the museum, found a complete moa leg with the skin and feathers still attached to it. The indications were all in the direction that some human being had put the leg there in the cave for preservation, intending to come back for it. Moriori remains had been found in association with those of the moa.