THE MOA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3021, 19 October 1908, Page 7

THE MOA.

J&N INTERESTING LETTER. A member of the Ngai Tahu tribe, at Kaiapoi, writing to the"Lyttel--tm Times"' relative to the disappearance of the ' moa, says:—"Some years ago I read in the Christchurch papers an article by the iats Sir • Julius von Haast, entitled 'The Moa and Moa Hunters,' in which Sir Julius stated the Maoris were not the moa hunters, but that the moa hunters were a prehistoric race to the Maoris. I thought that statement was incorrect, so I made enquiry of •our old people (Maoris) if the moa was seen here (South Island) by the Ngai Tahu tribe, but was answered .by all that the moa was not seen by the Ngai Tahu nor the Ngati Maamoe, nor the Waitah tribes, and they ■ doubt whether the Haweas saw the moa. This went to confirm Sir Julius' statement. The statement that the ;«moa was about the Wellington district so recently as stated could hardly be true. The moa could ::ct be there without being Keen by the Ngai Tahu people, who occupied all that district before crossing the Straits about ten or twelve generations ago. The Maoris say that the moa lived on wind, because whenever it blew t'.is :moa would stretch its r/cek to the wind, and open its mouth and eat the wind. This might account for the statement that they" stretched their necks gazing across the ocean to their former haunts. lam of opinion that the extinction of the moa was caused by fire, as the remains of these birds are more numerous in swamps and about the edge of the snow line, where they probably fled to escape the fire, and died of starvation through their food being destroyed. Whether the fires were accidentally lighted or. by the hunters in pursuit, in order to capture them more easily, we cannot, of course, say. I once came across a heap of over a quart of roundish quartz gravel about the edge of the snow line on the Mount Benger range (in the mining days of Otago) on a bunch of growing vines, which gave it the appearance of being recently deposited. On examination 1 found that the depths of the lowsHt pebbles did not exceed an inch into the earth. The growth of the vines under and about the heap of gravel was probably of more recent date. There is not a pebble of any description to be found on the mountain side for miles around, nothing but pure soil, which was continually washing away by the thaw. The deposit was by the moa, perhaps from its gizzard. In the islands (Pacific) the fowl is called a -moa.