OLD MAORI CANOE

Evening Star, Issue 16625, 7 January 1918, Page 6

OLD MAORI CANOE

DISCOVERED AT KAI-KAI BEACH. GENUINE SPECIMEN, WELL PRESERVED. An old Maori canoe is being dug out of a lagoon at Kai-kai Beach, near Hay ward Point. It is said to be a genuine specimen, and is in a good state of preservation. The canoe is lying on its side, and the stem was lightly protruding from the sand in which it is embedded when Master Gordon M'Kenzie, of Port Chalmers, first observed it last year. The condition of the canoe is in some measure due to the fact that it was apparently used as a receptacle for holding oil in the old whaling days, about the middle of last century. It seems that when the protruding gunwale was first observed some doubt existed as to whether it was a canoe. The lad consulted his father, and decided that if it was a canoe it should be presented to the Old Identities' Association at Port Chalmers as a curio.

The "find" was subsequently referred to Mr Murray-Thomson, who has a, personal knowledge of such matters, and who ha-s one of the medals presented by Captain Cook to the Maoris, a curio which is very rare, and which is said to now have a monetary value of 170gs. Mr Thomson inspected the "find," and decided that it was a canoe, and one which he himself had seen many years ago. When the vicinity was closely observed it was found that the lagoon in which the Canoo was embedded was portion of a property belonging to Mr T. Harrison. He wa« informed, ana is having the canoe carefully excavated. Mr Murray-Thomson informed a ' Star' reporter that the old canob has been buried in the sand for many yteavs. He has no doubt that it is a canoe which was used by the Maoris to hold oil, which they "tried out" of a small whale that washed ashore at Kai-kai Beach the vera 1 Pilot Gunn mid his boat crew perished at. Otago Heads. Mr Thomson was staying with Mr J. W. Hunter, of Murdering Beach, at the time. They wont over to Kai-kai Beach, and there they saw the canoe nearly full of oil, which, he remembers, looked something like lard in appearance. They got tho tail of the whale, out of vriiich they managed to get a few bottles of very good oil to burn in th/ 3 lamp. How the canoe came to Kai-kai, or who it belonged to, Mr Thomson does not know, unless it was the property of the old Maori chief who was the last Maori to live there, and after whom the beach is named. This old chief had left the locality only a few years prior to 1863. _ The size of thaS canoe—l2ft or 14ft—quite agrees with tile present find. Mr Thomson can recall hearing a few years ago of a canoe at Kai-kai Beach, but ho did not give the matter much attention until young Gordon M'Konzie dropped across it again. He told his son about it, and decided to have it removed to better quarters ; but on going -.o the place found that the canoe was on Si? Harrison's property.