NATURAL HISTORY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5581, 29 July 1910, Page 3

NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE BAY OF PLENTY,

The Tamanga Literary and Debating Society held its weekly meeting at the Good Templars' Hall on Wednesday evening. The piesident occupied the chair. Mr Hills and Miss Munro read very good reports of previous uieetiugs, which were well received.

Mr W. R. Turner then read his paper on the " Natural History of the Bay of Plenty." He prefaced his subject by a brief account of the geology of our islauds, shewing the tremendous power of seismic, glacial, climatic, and tidal forces in altering the physical features of the land, and in building up other features from the debris. He also alluded to the flora and fauna of tho period. Mention was made of the fact of no less than 43 fossil remains of reptilian monsters, comprising 13 varieties, being found in tho carboniferous deposits. The tropical period having given place to the glacial era, the ad° vent of the moa and other wingless birds, the lecturer stated, had taken place during the later stagas of that period, as their bones had been fre quently found buried in moraiuic accumulations.

Mr Turner gave a brief account of how it was possible for material to be transported by means of ice and drifciug wood from one land to another. He, however, thought that it had been pretty conclusively proved that New Zealand was no child in the arms of nature, and that we were not living upon a thin crust of the earth's surface. The vast deposits of material lying upon our monntain slopes and extend-

ing to our shores, its fossil remains, and other evidences of great age, clearly prove that New Zealand is geologically as old as any other portion of the globe, and that we need not fear our country's stability ia that respect at any rate.

The lecturer thought thai with regard to the appearance of flora and fauna upon new countries the founder of the scheme of life had never ceased to create, and that under certain conditions the earth produces species which are changed by environment to varieties.

Mr Turner then proceeded to explain the theories which he had adopted as to the formation of Maunganui, which he stated was only the remnant of a vast volcanic plateau which once existed, and whioh extended from M>»yor L».

land to the back ranges. This great formation of igneous matter consisted of lava, thracbyte, and tuffs, which had been cooled beneath the ocean. He also contended that a large series of craters formerly existed in the Bay of Plenty, and showed that a line drawn from Mount Egmont to White Island would, if a finger's breadth were drawn across the railway map, cover the whole of the igneous and hydro ther-

mal action at present existing in tho North Island. Suoh line would include White aad Whale Islands.

Ihe lecturer then stated that the many reefs, shoals, and small islands, including the Lizard, and Bowentown Reads, were, with Mauugauui, parts of the great tableland' which oiice existed. He also sUted that we were now living under the line of that for-

mation, which still existed at Kaiinai, uuu in the ranges extending from be

yond Katikati to Papaiioa.

The lecturer contended that the de struction ef this system found a grea

bay extending from the Mount towards the ranges ; that after the denudation

of th.s material there was an upheaval of land from the bed of the ocean, and that during a long period of volcanic re&t a surface was formed, partly through sedimentary formations, and partly through the dust storms of the desert land. Evidences of this surface can now be seen in any of our cuttings and cliffs, winch show an excellent soil full of organic matter which once produced a luxuriant vegetation. This vegetation was ultimately, fireJ by other outbreaks of volcanic action, and the soil became a laterite. B..ulders of this formation are also found near the summit of Maunganui, which speak of another subsidence, an upheaval and final development of existing conditions. After describing how the presentharbour of Tauranga was formed through rivers carrying material from the then forming valleys, and forming a delta which wag ultimately carried to tie Mount, and towards Bowentown Heads, Mr Turner dealt with the giowth of plant life, and stated that fiom the similarity of life existing upon the islands of the coast, these islands must have been connected) with the mainland, or how would our wing less birds and beetles have reached them.

Ethnological reserrch was then dealt with. The lecturer stated that perhaps the most ancient evidence- of the existence of man on these islands was ob taineel in a forest near Brace's Bay, where successive forert growths had accrued, and where, at a depth of 15ft., lying on what had been the ocean beach, a sharpening stone and a halfpolished chisel were fouud by a party of miners. As there were three zones of growth beyond the site of this find, the great antiquity of these implements was proved beyond a doubt. The next reference to ancient remains of man were stated to be now in a separate case in the Canterbury Museum. These implements were found in what was known as Monk's Cave, at Sumner, and contain so many evidences of semi civilised life, so much that combined the ornamental and use- j ful, and so much unlike anything found elsewhere, that they must be placed as relics belonging to a race of whom up to the present time no further trace can be -found. Next in order of antiquity are the relics of a race who are styled the moa hunters,"and who are apparently responsible for the extermination of those, giant birds. These relics wore found iv many places along the coast line, 'their villages were of great extent, and their ovens the same as the Maori?. Their kitchen mounds consisted chiefly of moa bones, intermixed with the re mains of a feral dog, which was used hs food, but not domesticated, as wu? proved by no gnawed boues being found- These people bad chipped flnt tools, some of which were polished, but none of greenstone. After a lengthy lapse of time, during which the inea-lmnters had passed out of existence, or had migrated elsewhere, and their remains had been covered with a dust formation, a new race of people appears upon the scene, known as ths shellfish-caters. There was no gradual merging from one to the other, but whenever tha remains of these two people were f. uad close together there was always a distinct line, showing that a lung time h.d existed between the depirtuic of the one race, and the arrival of the other. These latter people were fishermen, pure and simj.h', and ab.-oiue'v m> remains of the moa or d;>g h;.ve bei-n found in their refuse hei.ps, which ex tend along ths shores of both islands. These people used greenstone tools and polished ornaments. N<> traces of cannibalism have ever b'-'en found m their middtus TLera are n- ne <n th«

I shell heaps on the Mount, with the exception of those on the isthmus, near the Mount, which was the scene of a massacre and cannibal feast in comparatively modern times.

Then there are evidences of an advanced civilisation in the rock paintings, which, taken with the finding of a taroil bronze bell among the Maoris in the very earliest days of white settlement by the Rev. Mr Colenso, tend to show the existence of another race. Both the rock paintings and the bell bore signs of an apparent inscription of Buddbist origin, symbolic of their trinity, and, as these symbols are also found ou the granite shores of Scotlaud, and in various parts of Europe, it is inferred that Buddnist missionaries had also reached these shores.

The evidences of a white race having existed in New Zealand was also touched upon. The advent of a race whose fortifications were dissimilar to tho 3 e of any other people, and who sacrificed human beings when making these forts, is also in evidence. There is also evidence of the Moriri inhabitants of the Ohathams haviug lived here.

The advent of the Polynesians in iLeir canoes also furnied anotuer addi tion to the native population, lhese people, known as the Hawaikians, brought with thorn the kumara, the taro, the karaka, and other e.iible plants, birds, and the kaiore, a small rat. This people, in the course ut a few centuries, through inter ui-.irna.go with the native race, became very numerous, and ultimately the dominant race. They appear to have taugbt the aborigines only the arf.s of cultivation und slaughter of their own kind for fuod They have adopted all the arts and appliances of the native races, oi whom in the Bay of Plenty, only a small remnant, known as the Pirirakaus. now exist.