Bones those of Maori

Press, 28 January 1988, Page 5

Bones those of Maori

A skeleton found at Birdlings Flat has been identified as a Maori who inhabited the area before 1900. The director of the Canterbury Museum, Mr Michael Trotter, lifted the skeleton from a shallow grave yesterday morning at the request of the local Maori community and the police. Members of the local community and the Maori Affairs Department performed appropriate ceremonies before the bones were removed. The museum would take care of the bones until the final resting place is decided, said Mr Trotter. Mr Henare Tau, the deputy chairman of the Ngai-Tahu Trust Board and a Maori repre-

sentative on the Museum Trust Board, said the skeleton would probably be buried in the Maori cemetery at Little River. A report completed on Tuesday by a Christchurch pathologist, Dr John Pettit, showed that the skeleton, which was almost complete, appeared to be an adult male. The bones were very old. Senior - Sergeant David Sandes, of Hornby, said last evening that the skeleton would stay at the museum until it had been positively identified. It had been dated as pre-1900 and perhaps older. No further police inquiries would be made about the grave and the skeleton, he said.