OLD MAORI CANOE FOUND IN BUSH

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30831, 17 August 1965, Page 7

OLD MAORI CANOE FOUND IN BUSH

“The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, August.l6 A 52-foot Maori canoe that has lain for about 60 years in rugged bush country near Lake Rotoiti, will be salvaged. One of the last of its type to be built, the canoe was hewn from a giant totara tree at the foot of a deep valley in the hills surrounding Lake

Rotoiti, about eight miles from the lake shore. Members of the Ngati Tera- . ngiunuora sub-tribe spent ■ many weeks in felling the . tree and hollowing it in crude i shape, only to find that their ; efforts had been wasted—the i canoe was too big and the country too steep to haul it I out. According to Mr Sam Emery, one of the tribe’s oldest living leaders, teams of bullocks were taken into the area but even they could not move the canoe, so it was left where it lay. In spite of the weathering since then, the canoe was relatively free from rot when found recently by Mr A. Jarlov, a logging contractor with milling rights to the area. Mr Jarlov reported his find ,to local Maori leaders and i has since agreed to haul the ’ canoe out of the bush for ■ them. i Logging roads have been ( made in the area, allowing full use of modem machines. I These are expected to succeed where the bullocks failed. 1 The canoe, only partly com- ■ pleted, will be finished, 1 carved and equipped with an I elaborately-adorned prow. i