MAORI ROCK CARVINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1925, Page 9

MAORI ROCK CARVINGS.

MR. EXSIION BEST'S OPINION. RESEMBLANCE TO TAHITIAN OANOES. (From Our Own correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Excellent photographs of the carvings of eighteen canoes on the rock at Kaingaroa have been obtained, by the Dominion Museum authorities, and have been submitted to Mr. Elsdon Best, the well-known investigator of Maori life and tradition. Mr. Best is not disposed to regard the find as one likely to provide any fresh knowledge of the race, but it has its interesting features, which he has noted in a memorandum to the director of the Dominion Museum. He state?: — 'The sweeping curves of the stern projections of some of the canoes remind one of the illustrations of Tahitian canoes in 'Cook's Voyages.' Others resemble wonderfully- the turapa of the Maori canoe, i.e., waka tana. The socalled stage referred to in newspaper articles may represent a form of tanihu or prow attachment, generally termed figurehead. "The horizontal projection at the prow is shown level or flush with the keel in some cases. A similar projection on certain classes of Tahitian canoe is -well above water. "The lands surrounding this part of Kaingaroa have been held by the >Tgati Manawa tribe for the past eleven or twelve generations. Prior to that time they were held by Te Marangaranga, with Te Tini-o-Tuoi to the north of them. The Xgati Hotu never held mana over these lands. Ngati Manawa were living at Motuwako, north, of the carved face ac late as 186f>. "The absence of tradition about these carvings goes for nothing. They are not the sort of things that would be so mentioned, unless some special act of some ancestor was connected with them. Tt is not wise to assume that they represent anything more than a diversion of persons occupying the rock shelter. Shelters were used greatly in former times by travellers and food seekers.-' The State Forest Department has fenced the rock face, to prevent interference toy vandals, and it is only possible to closely inspect these interesting carvings hj firrt obtaining the permission of the Dominion Museum authorities.