The phormium plant is widely spread over New Zealand from north to south, and millions of acres of land are covered with it. It grows upon any kind of soil, whether moist or dry; in any locality, whether high or low. In the alps of the South Island, phormium bushes are met with up to a height of 5500 feet above the level of the sea. It attains, however, its most luxuriant growth in the vicinity of swamps and rivers, upon moist, alluvial soil. Here the leaves grow to a length of 10 or 12 feet, and the the flower-stalks to a height of 16 or 20 feet, with a thickness of 2 to 3 inches.

Experiments made to test the strength or tenacity of the New Zealand-flax fibre have shown that it is far superior to the fibre of the European flax and hemp; and now that the difficulties of its manufacture have been overcome, it may be regarded as one of the chief articles of export from New Zealand.

THE MOA, AND WINGLESS BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

THE family of the ostrich class of birds is remarkable for numbering among its members, not only some of the strangest-looking, but by far the largest representives of the "feathery tribe," and are therefore called giant-birds.

The number of living species is very small; there are only about twelve known altogether: two, or perhaps three, species of the ostrich in Africa, three of the cassowary in southern Asia, two of the emu in Australia, three of the rhea in South America, and three or four of the kiwi in New Zealand. Of this class of birds the African ostriches

are at once the most numerous and the largest, being from six to seven feet in height. But the number of living species is inconsiderable in comparison with that of the extinct, which used to inhabit the islands from Madagascar to New Zealand, in some cases even within the memory of man; and it is among these that we become acquainted with the largest specimens of these singular birds.

Yet, wonderful as this family of birds is, whatever had been heard, known, and collected regarding them, was far surpassed by the interest and intelligence which ensued upon the discovery of the moas and kiwis of New Zealand. In 1812 the first skin of a kiwi was brought to England, and zoologists were at once thrown into extreme perplexity in their attempts to classify so strange an animal. It is about the size of a hen, is without wings and without tail, and has four toes on each foot, with a long bill like that of a snipe, and the body covered with long brown feathers resembling hair.

Only very little is known of the mode of living of these kiwis. They are night-birds, hiding themselves by day under the roots of forest trees, and going in search of food only at night. They feed upon insects, grubs, worms, and the seeds of various plants, and always live in pairs.

The kiwi, however, is insignificant in size when compared with the moa, which inhabited New Zealand in bygone ages, and of which bones, eggs, and even perfect skeletons, are frequently found imbedded in the soil or concealed in caves.

Of this gigantic bird the bones that have been found prove that it sometimes attained the height of from twelve to fourteen feet, and that its legs measured five feet in length; but there were also species of a smaller size. Besides bones, fragments of egg-shells are also found, proving

One

that the eggs exceeded those of the ostrich in size. almost perfect egg is about ten inches in length and seven in breadth, the shell being of a dirty-brownish colour, and about the twelfth of an inch in thickness.

These huge birds were once the only large animal beings that peopled New Zealand; and the first immigrants, the Maories, who, throughout the whole length and breadth of its extensive forests found nothing to subsist on except the native rat and some small birds, obtained from the flesh of the moa their necessary supplies of meat. Consequently, to hunt those huge birds was in former times the principal pursuit of these early settlers, and it is probable that they completely exterminated them in the course of a few centuries.

DISCOVERY OF MOA BONES

BY DR HOCHSTETTER, AT COLLINGWOOD, A.D. 1859.

I REMEMBER with much pleasure the grand impression which the sight of the moa bones made upon me, when for the first time I entered the halls of the famous north gallery of the British Museum. Ever since that time I cherished the hope that I might be able to fetch from New Zealand similar treasures; and happily I did not fail in my expectations, although I suffered much disappointment at the beginning of my researches.

Upon the North Island I had scoured every district that had been noted for the occurrence of moa bones. I had ransacked all the so-called moa caves, but all in vain. The moa enthusiasts who had been there before me had carried off the last fragment of a moa bone; and the Maories, having discovered that they could make money by them, had

gathered all the relics they could find, and sold them to European amateurs, often at enormous prices. At last I discovered that one relic still remained in this region, and it was in the possession of a chief in the Tulma district, who produced from the dust and rubbish of his raupohut an old bone, which he had hidden for a long time, and with which he consented to part only after lengthy negotiations.

Upon the South Island, however, I had better luck, and that in the very last month of my stay in New Zealand. It was upon the gold-fields of Nelson, on the Aorere river, that I heard from some diggers of a cave that had been very recently discovered, in which the almost perfect skeleton of a colossal bird had been found, and in which, as the report went, there were still numbers of bones, so strong as to require the utmost effort to break and shatter them. I was conducted to the cave, and, after a short search, I had the pleasure of exhuming some fragments of bones from the loam at the bottom. I at once ordered a thorough search of the cave, and I left my friend and fellow-traveller, Dr Julius Haast, and a young English surveyor, Mr Maling, to do their best in the work of moa digging; for my own services being required on the gold-fields and coal-fields of the district, I had to forego the pleasure of forming one of the party.

We had appointed a rendezvous in the town of Collingwood after three days, at the expiration of which time my friends came in triumphantly, conducting oxen decked with flowers and heavily laden with moa bones, amid the concourse of the whole population of Collingwood.

The collection which my friends brought to Collingwood contained bones of ten different individual birds, belonging to six or seven different species, and among them some

kiwi bones. And this collection was further increased by the addition of the entire skeleton which had been first found, and which the finders had presented to the Nelson Museum. This the trustees of that museum, in their turn, presented to the Museum of the Imperial Geological Institution at Vienna, where it is now exhibited.

THE STORY OF TE UIRA, CHIEF OF
THE NGATIMAME.

A MAORI LEGEND.

THE most ancient tribe that inhabited the South Island of New Zealand, is said to have borne the name of Waitaha. This tribe was exterminated by the Ngatimamo, who came over from Wanganui in the North Island. The Ngatimamo lived on the shores of Cook Strait, and subsisted principally on the gigantic moas. They were subsequently joined by the Ngatitara, who likewise came from the North Island; and when their friends the Ngatikuri heard of the charming beauty of the new country, and of the excellent eel-fisheries there, they also emigrated thither from the North Island also. Then hostilities arose. Ngatikuri joined their kindred tribe the Ngatitara, and they together assumed the name of Ngatitahu, and waged war with the Ngatimamo. The latter, in the course of the long and bloody wars which ensued, were driven more and more towards the south, and from the coast into the interior of the island, to take up their abode among the inhospitable Southern Alps.

The

About a century ago the Ngatimamo were driven back as far as Jackson's Bay, whilst their pahs, or villages, at