He said that by far the most sturdy, virile, impulsive and enterprising people on Oliffa inhabited the British Isles. Of course, the race had much to do with modern movements, but the earlier climatic conditions of the country produced the racial distinctions.
The Moa of Maoriland. The skeleton of this particular Moa stands about 12ft. high, and is a curious but substantial fact, but as the Moa, the dinornis—as the learned folks call it—permanently retired from New Zealand, possibly before the Maoris came, the plumage and plumpness are the works of the artistic naturalist.
“By the rule of Nature, then,” he continued, “Zelania, with the proper stock to begin with, in complexion, form, feature, temperament, and mental endowments, should produce the finest type of man and womanhood on the planet.”
He compared the Maoris with the aboriginals of interior Australia, and said both were modified by their environment.
Here Leo Bergin remarked that Mr. Oseba was certainly greatly taken and impressed by his “colonial” experience. However, it is not improbable that while travelling in New Zealand Mr. Oseba received sufficient courtesies to impress him deeply with the matchless hospitality of the people.
“But, enough,” says Leo Bergin, “my master is worthy of my whole attention,” and the notes run:—
“But let me return, my children, and pick up the theme of Zelania, for in her—with my tours over her romantic islands—I found balm for all my earlier disappointments.
“Zelania has certainly not worried her soul in life-producing efforts. In botany, she is not rich in species; in mammals she is more allied to South America, over six thousand miles distant, than to Australia, but twelve hundred miles, justifying my conviction that this paragon of beauty was an after-thought of the creative power.