MAORI BURIAL GROUND STILL USED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 13

MAORI BURIAL GROUND STILL USED

Established About 1820

SITE OF SEA VIEW ROAD NEAR HUTT PARK

Still being used for the purpose for which it was established approximately 1.20 years ago is. the Maori burial ground alongside the woolscouring works on Seaview Road opposite Hutt Park. It was originally the burial ground of the Owhiti pa and had been 20 years in existence when the first settlers landed on Petone beach.

Each pa then had its burial ground and there were two others in the same district, both on the . Petone side of Owhiti pa. One of these was the Hikoekoea pa burial ground; the other that of the Pito One (the end of the sand) pa. 'The Matehou subtribe of the Te Atiawas used the Owhiti and Hikoekoea pa grounds and the Ngatitawhirikura subtribe the Pito One ground. The known burial grounds sueh as these date from the arrival of the missionaries and the early conversion of some of (he Maoris to Christianity. Before that there were burial grounds but they were tapu and frequently their existence was known only to the tohungas. The original Pito One burial ground and the Hikoekoea burial grounds no longer exist. The former is said to have been near the site now occupied by the Gear Meat Company’s fellmongery. In this old cemetery were buried some sailors from early ships. There is another and more recent Maori cemetery in Petone, just, off the Esplanade at the western end. It was supposed to be the place where Wharepouri, the paramount chief of the time, made his deal w.ith Colonel Wakefield in 1840 for the sale of the lands round Port Nicholson, according to Mr. Hapi Love, a Maori leader, who was interviewed yesterday regarding the history of these early burial grounds. Mr. Love said it was never known where the chiefs and leaders of the Maori people before the coming of the Europeans were given their resting place. The dead were never buried because of the fear of other tribes digging up the remains. The established burial grounds really began with the Christian era among the Maori people—about 1820. The Maoris had a means of preserving or emibalminig the bodies of their distinguished dead. He had seen one body which had been thus embalmed; it was like 'wood but the features were clearly preserved. His grandmother had witnessed the embalming of a man and had told him of it. From what he could recall the process was to remove the internal organs of the body, till it with a liquid and then place it over heated emberw till the liquid had been absorbed. In the present Petone Maori cemetery near the Esplanade was buried Honiuna fl’e Puni, a paramount chief who died in 1867, and all his family. Wharepouri was said to be buried in the ground near the Gear fellmongery, said Mr. Love. Mr. Love's grandfather, Witako Ngatata. was buried in the C.dtbolic cemetery which was situated beneath Mr. Love’s home on the Koro Koro hills overlooking Port Nicholson and Petone. From the first to the last of these three an injunction had been handed on to be henceforth peaceful with Maori and pakehn. His grandfather had-carried out. this charge to the letter, said Mr. Love: lie was a great strategist nnd had been known “the Icingmaker.” The Owhiti cemetery is only a few yards off the Seavicw Road, n short distance from Hutt Fark corner, and can be plainly seen from the road.

MINOR FIRE WHICH LOOKED SERIOUS

Dense elands of smoke and n red glow enured crowds of people to gather in High Street. Dower TTntt. nt 9.15 o'clock last night. It appeared that a large drapery firm’s premises were on fire. It was found, however, that the smoke came from a defective chimney in a. flat in the building and the rod glow from a noon sign of the drapery firm which was shining on the smoke. The Dower TTutl Volunteer Fire Brigade put out the chimney fire with n hand extinguisher. Some minutes’ delay to traffic was caused bv the crowd.