MAORI BURIAL GROUNDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1927, Page 3

MAORI BURIAL GROUNDS

BONES UNCOVERED BY RAIN. An extraordinary result of the heavy rain experienced this whiter at the northerly extremity of the North Island has been to uncover immense quantities of human bones indicating the presence of old and important Maori burial grounds. The bones are mixed with small bits of obsidian, the latter having been thrown by mourners on the bodies of the dead at the climax of the funeral rites. The site of the cemeteries now uncovered is on the sand and stone hillocks that abound between North Cape and Cape Maria Van Diemen. Between these two capes lies Spirits Bay, whose western point is named Cape Reinga. According to tradition it is to Spirits Bay that the spirits of the Maoris go after death. At Cape Reinga there is a semi-circular ledge of rock, a dress circle on. which the spirits dance before taking off into the ether. . The uncovering of the graves indicates that the tradition was generally accepted by the Maoris and that they sought to place the bodies of thendead as near as possible to the point of departure for the spirits. A further intriguing discovery was made just outside the Gates of Pandora, Herbert MacQuarrie’s camping site. Here there appeared an oval of stones enclosing what had been a suspiciously long Maori campfire or oven. At four regular intervals appeared bones where apparently four people had been sitting and eating. The remains of then’ meal were human bones.