IMPORTANT ARTIFACT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29536, 10 June 1961, Page 12

IMPORTANT ARTIFACT

Maori Canoe Float Found (N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 9 Described as one of the most important archaeological discoveries in New Zealand for several years, an ancient outrigger canoe float, unearthed on a Te Horo farm more than two years ago, has been presented to the Dominion Museum. It is only the second found in New Zealand, the first being in a landslip-sealed cave, known as Moa-Bone Point at Redcliffs. The float was found by a Te Horo farmer, Mr T. F. Pinfold, in 1958. when ploughing a drained swamp. He put the float in a shed, where it remained until about six months ago when he showed it to a Wellington archaeologist. Mr G. L. Adkin. Mr Adkin said today that the float, though undoubtedly buried for many centuries, was well preserved. It measured 14ft 3in in lengtn, compared w-ith the five feet 11} inches of the Redcliffs float. The Te Horo float had five attachment booms and the Redcliffs float three. The Dominion Museum’s ethnologist. Dr. T. Barrow. said today the museum was indebted to both Mr Pinfold a id Mr Adkin. “The outrigger canoe of Oceania has been extensively studied and the idea had its origin in the Indonesian region from where it spread eastward into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia and to the west as far as Madagascar.” he said. “The pattern of thig distribution is one of the many cultural facts that allows us to place the origin of the Polynesians in the genera! Indonesian and South-east Asian area and not in the Americas as Mr Thor Heyerdahl, of the Kon-Tiki raft, would have us believe," he said.