BENMORE ROCK DRAWINGS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29402, 3 January 1961, Page 13

BENMORE ROCK DRAWINGS

Salvage Work In Progress "TM Prut" Special Service WELLINGTON. Jan. 2. The removal of several interesting Maori rock drawings—or. rather, the rock on which they have been drawn—which otherwise would be “drowned” when the lake behind the Benmore hydro-electric dam is formed is now under way at various points along the banks of the Waitakl River. This is the second time that the Ministry of Works has rescued Maori rock drawings from lake drowning, the first being several years ago at the Waipapa hydro scheme on the Waikato Ifiver. Mr M. Curran, Ministry of Works engineer at Benmore, in collaboration with Mr W Ambrose. of the anthropology department of Auckland University, has been organising the removal of the drawings for placing in the Canterbury and Otago museums—according to which side of the river—it is the boun-

they are taken from. To date with one collection out of five so far removed, they have had 75 per cent, success. The method of removal, while apparently brutal, is the only practical method and involves drilling into the hard, brittle rock behind the drawings and knocking them free with small explosive charges. Of the four separate groups taken the week before last from the well-known Ahurlri collection, three attempts were successful but the fourth was smashed to smithereens and had to be written off.