EVIDENCE OF AN ANCIENT RACE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 14 July 1933, Page 12

EVIDENCE OF AN ANCIENT RACE.

FRAGMENT OF JAWBONE. FIND IN A SUMNER CAVE. The fragment of a jawbone at present in the Canterbury Museum, and which was recovered during excavations in the Moa Point cave at Sumner, may reveal the existence in New Zealand of a primitive race before the coming of the Maori, according to Professor R. Speight, curator of the museum, who is considering sending the bone to Dr. Elliot Smith, Professor of Anatomy in the University of London, for examination. A message in "The Press'' yesterday stated mat Dr. Elliot Smith had examined a skull of abnormal thickness found on the Waikakau beach last January by a Stratford party. He considered that the skull was much more primitive than the Maori type, indicating the possibility that there existed in New Zealand a primitive man long before the colonisation of the country by the Maori. In view of Dr. Elliot Smith's opinion, Professor Speight said that, although he was not prepared to venture an opinion concerning the presence of primitive men in New Zealand, his interest had been aroused. He said that no conclusive evidence had yet been produced to support | the suggestion that primitive men ! lived in New Zealand. Carvings which were not of the Maori type had been found in the North Island, but it was not thought that they could have been done by a primitive race. Human remains unearthed had never been found in anything but recent formations.

Imperious Race. Tradition had it that a race of Melanesian origin had lived in New Zealand long before the coming of the Maoris. This mysterious race was the traditional Muruiwi, from which the Morioris of the Chatham Islands and the ancient Ngati-Ma-moe tribe of Canterbury and Otago were supposed to have descended. This theory, however, was not substantiated bv the evidence concerning the Morioris.

It was possible that the fragment of jawbone from the Moa Point cave might possess deep significance. The bone, together with other fragments found in cave, was lodged in the museum. It comprised about half of one sido of a lower jaw, being about throe inches long and apparently beins from the "hinge" of the jaw. It wn? found In the lowest marine sand which had been exnosed when the lower deposits had been removed—thus, it was considerably below the traces left by the men hunter* in the more recent upper lavers. One of the principal of a heel had also been found. It seemed. froir> the presence of the marine tbat the land risen from 13 to 15 feet since the rands were led to the belief thrt the sand was deposited a very long time ago. However, there were instances of the sudden raising of land through earthquakes, such as the rise of seven feet at Napif l " in 1931, bo that it. was not correct to say that the sand in the Moa Point cave j proved extreme geological age. ,

Possible Deductions. There was a possibility that the fragment of jawbone belonged to a race which had provided the thick skull found in the North Island. It was not thought that the skull could have been washed ashore from a considerable distance out to sea. Presumably Dr. Elliot Smith had not relied on the thickness of the skull alone in forming his ooinion. Professor Speight added that, in any event, it was interesting to find suggestions of the existence of a low human race In New Zealand, especially when the Maruiwi legend was remembered. The evidence was slight, but he thought it might be worth while to send the jawbone fragment in the museum to England to see if it threw any light on the problem.