SCIENCE CONGRESS

Evening Star, Issue 18173, 13 January 1923, Page 7

SCIENCE CONGRESS

CANOE BUILDING AND OLD TOOLS. [Pee United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, January 15. A paper was read before the ethnological section of the Scdernc© Congress this morning by Mr F. V. Knapp, of Nelson, on tho subject of ‘GanoeJbuilding Tools of the Tasman Bay Maoris,’ during the course of which he said tho canoe was in. many parts regarded as the most valued possession of the ancient Maori, and, though war canoes are now never scon, yet they were seen in numbers Iby the old settlers in pioneering days. Tho statement in Hamilton’s ‘Maori Art ’ that war oanoebuiiding was confined principally to the Natives of the East Coast was queried by Mr Knapp, who mentioned evidences of old workshops on the Tasman Day’beaches as proof that a flourishing war canoe-build-ing industry existed there in past ages. Canoes on that coast wore built of totara, and allusion was made to the tapering of certain suitable trees. Young saplings wero notched several feet above the ground to secure a strip of dry wood being formed in toe native trees to facilitate the bollow-ing-out process. Mr Knapp suggested that those workshops were often a considerable distance from tho pa, the workmen, being convoyed to and from their work'. The fact that _ stone implements in Tasman Bay districts wore more rough and less polished than in the northern ’ cultural areas might bo duo to the fact that an abundance of supplies of good stono was available locally. Most of tho large adzes and gouges had been collected, and arc in’ tho museum, and the object of tho paper was to draw attention to many unpolished, shipped tools to which hitherto little attention had been given. Details by which those might he recognised wore given, and thou. Mr Knapp proceeded to suggest that the tools were made from chance flakes, and not struck off in different slopes for certain purposes. The keen, cyo of tho dusky arinficcr would see at n, glance how the flakes could ho of service : hence fow wore wasted, and in this way the Tasman Bay and Star Bay Natives had in use a wonderful variety of makes of slopes which they used in canooboilding. Even after a canoo was built much remained to be done in making the hull smooth. Stone scrapers were necessary, as well as' sandstone rubbers for smoothing down. A canoo figurehead or stornpost owed its beauty to tho open finish of its design; hence drills and borers were all-important tools in carving work. Tho writer classified these into ten distinct sets, each with an accompanying figure, each of which was mentioned. He aho referred to the beautiful greenstone chisels, which wero worked at low angle for shallow carving. In the com sc of the paper repeated attention was drawn to tho remarkable resemblance existing between Tasman Bay art .and tho pictures from tho kitchen middens of North-wcstom Europe. Various types wore thou mors particularly referred to, and their uses and peculiarities noted. In this way about fifty sets were dealt with, tho lecturer’s remarks being often illustrated by drawings. Tho whole series must, Mr Knapp said, bo taken as indicative of the genius and industry of tho ancient canoo builders. They demonstrated that these Maori exports of Tasman Bay evidently took a pride in their work, since they elaborated and brought into use such a wonderful variety of implements to enable them successfully to execute- tho detail and finish o! their canoe ornamentation.