EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERIES AT THE LONG BUSH?

Clutha Leader, Volume XXV, Issue 1274, 16 December 1898, Page 6

EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERIES AT THE LONG BUSH ?

HUMAN BEMAINS, THE KUMI, MAORI EELICS <fee. Continued. Sir. — I am not a great explorer like M. de Rougemont or our own Tom — I say our Tom, although he is far from us and hobnobbing with lords and deucks, we love to keep his memory green and are looking forward to the time when he may he once more beneath the cross. If he is not made Premier immediately on landing he may have time to again don the moleskins and the meal pock and perhaps explore the Long B'ish from end to end. When I have discovered so many wonderful things in a Mausie Wauchish wpy, in skirting along the outside, what may he not discover in its solid and mysterious depths. I have always been very anxious to pick up some relics of the ancient Maori . racp. I do not care for anything 1 would have to buy. I hare been in many out-of-the-way places but never found anything of that kind, except the Maori oven«, which are plentiful everywhere I have been. I cannot truthfully say I picked them up, they are awkward things to carry very far. I found one lately diff-rent from any I have ever seen before. Tt was on newly burned fern land, else I would not have noticed it. It was a patch of stones neatly packed together in a circle on the surface of the ground. There was no pit but as much earth had been scrapoc 1 away as to give it » slightlj concave form. Thi3 form may be common but not likely to be seen for vegetation. At last I have found a curio in the shape of a greenstone mere or chisel or whatever it is called. It is very small, only about three inch?* long, but veiy neatly made, and the edge as sharp as it is possible for greenstone to bp. I was coming along the Canon's drive one day in a more than ordinary despondent mood owing to the scarcity of rabbits, consequently my eyes were directed earthwards and j noticed it sticking out of the mud where it had been walked over and ridden over for the last 30 or 40 years, and once in the memory of man was driven over with buggy and pair. It is not much to write about, but I am rather proud of it since I found it myself, and also on account of where I found it. Now, having cleared away the little things, I must proceed with the more serious story I have to tell. I am very unwilling to tell it, but my conscience is pricking me. lam afraid I have done wrong. It is some weeks since I found it. Perhaps I should have reported the matter to the authorities, then .they would have sent out the police. It may be a cowardly feeling that has made me keep it back. There is always a certain amount of suspicion attaches to any one reporting a matter of that kind, and I stand in great awe of the police. Some of them have got such a way with them, before you could say b'jabers, they would have me. turned inside out like a glove, and havn me confessing all the crimes in the calendar, treating the whole aff ir as a huge joke, until they got me fairly committed, and then That is one reason. Another is, I have still as much of the boy in me, or to go lurther back, perhaps the monkey, as to try and do anything I have seen done. I believe if 1 saw a man hanged Well I don't think I would go as far as that, although I have met some men, that I have thought would be all the better of a ' wee tit.' For instance, that low mean thief who stole a lot of my traps lately. We are told to love our neighbour as ourselves. How am I to love a low mean skunk like that. If my neighbour were as loveable as I am myself, I might manage it. I understand there was a clergyman calling at; my lonely tent lately — the first one I believe who has ever had the courage to penetrate these wilds in search of lost sheep. lam very sorry I was out and missed him. I would have taken his advice in the matter. Very probably he would have told me that the golden rule of life is, to do unto others as I would that others should unto me, I know very well what I would that somebody should do to me, and that is, to lay down my traps where he got them. Bffore I could do unto him likewise, I would J have to steal his traps, bpfore I could i put them back. If the clergyman had allowed that was the only way out of it, then there was that snag, the eighth commandment. If he said that under the circumstances I was perfectly justified in jumping it ■ then if I put back his traps and ha did not put back mine, I would be no * forrarder,' or he might be able to prove that I stole his traps, and I might not be able to prove that he stole mine. I have got it »1I in a snarl somehow, and perhaps my best plan will be to get the Rev. Griffith to do a little missionary wo«-k here, he has got a taking way with him of converting these sort of chaps into honest, hard working citizens, for a time at least. But I have been wandering. I said I had a boyish inclination to imitate anything I have seen done. When I made the startling discovery I mentioned, I immediately had a sneaking desire to try my hand at an inquest, in an amateur sort of way. Of course if the authorities are not satisfied, it can be done again in

the regular way. Next week I hope to be able to make a clean breast of it. N.