BURIED MERES

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 126, 28 May 1920, Page 8

BURIED MERES

A STRANGE RECOVERY.

The Levin Chronicle says that the Kuku Maori community has been stirred by the recovery of two valuable whalebone meres buried for many yeara. The paper relates that they were discovered by the aid of a Native woman; Mrs. T&liurangi, wife of tho Hon. Te Heu.Heii Tukino, M.L.C., who claims to possess powers of divination. The scene was laid o5 the main Kuku road, and a few hundred yaTds to the rear of l£r. Pink's residence. Leading a. procession of about ISO persons, tha chief actor took » course for some distance through the bush and then over some maize cultivations, and again entered a bush pathway, which eventually reached a stagnant, -weed-covered watercourse. Here sho halted, and placing: a stfok in the ground at the water's edge, declared that the lost meres would be found there. A spade was procured, and on digging dowa a depth of about two feet the meres wars unearthed.

Mr. Robert Ransfield, o£ Man&ktu, on« of the oldest Natives of this coasi, recounted some particulars concerning the long-lost patus.'- He stated thai frs weapons were owned.by their ancestors, Koronina and Pwetiwhana, who buried the meres to prevent their being lost, but prior to their deaths did not inform their descendants of the hiding place. The patu3 were formerly weapons of war, and, being tapu, were greatly treasured. It was believed that the loss of the patus had acted detrimentally _ to the well-being of the later generations of the former: chieftain owners, hence the desire to recover then* •nd break the evil spell.