MURDERING BEACH

Grey River Argus, 20 June 1925, Page 8

MURDERING BEACH

I A TALE OF OLD OTAGO. 1 The sinister doings around what is ’ now known as Murdering were recounted on Tuesday at the second ordinary meeting of the Otago Institute, held jointly with a. meeting of the archaeological branch. Mr H. D. Skinner gave a detailed version based upon an account given to the Hobart town “Chronicle” allegedly by Captnin Kelly upon his return to Australia. Mr Skinner, reports the “Olago .Daily Times,” said that the Native or Maori population of Otago had never been large, but some of the sites on which the Natives had lived had a decided educational value, notwithstanding the small Native population of Otago. Otago Heads consisted of Taiaroa Heads and Hayward Point. ; The first beach i\st Hayward Point was known as Kajkai’s Beach, which i vras a very beautiful spot. Next to it, and nearer to Purakanul, was Murdering Beach, which was about half a mile in length. It was a most favourable site for a Maori village. Headlands broke the westerly winds and made it one of the best projected beaches on that coast. A crook whieh i flowed down wormed a lagmn. The I creeks in the vicinitv of the bench ; W’lsi: ha ve teemed wi + h eels *>nd bird I life was plentiful inland. The exist, once of greenstone on the beach show. ' od tliat the Natives must have obtain. led their supplies from Wakntipu. i Glenorchv. and Martin’s Bax’. Tn the ! earliest days the beach was knoxvn by the name of Wharp-ake.ake. It had been of great value as a field for Maori curios. Not a few’- actually : made their living in digging curios. I and then disposing of them. The late Augustus Hamilton estimated that 31 i cwt of greenstone curios had been j taken from Murdering Beach, which l was roallv an enormous quantity. Mr ‘ .Tames Murdoch knew personally of 20 i tikis which wore found on this beach. | which gave some indication of the I richness of the site. Maiy of the best jof these curios had been sent out of i the Dominion, and were now to be i found in collections in Bristol and in ' Chicago. Among the recognised col. I lections in the Dominion were the Eels collection, the Murray Thomson collection, and the “Chubb” Smith collection in the Auckland Museum. A very large quantity of curios from this beach had been collected by a dealer and sold to tourists, and had thus been scattered all over the world. The speaker had been told that the beach ! was at on time tapu. but a. tohunga ' I from the North Island had raised the tapu. It was difficult to account for i the richness of the beach from a curio i point of view. The speaker then dealt , at some length with the reason why this particular beach became known

•as Murdering Bench. The facts were obtained from the late Dr M’Nab’s “Murihiku” (third edition). The : stoiw wa» taken from the Hobart i Town “Mercury” and reprinted in Dr ■ M’Nab’s book. It related how a seal. : ing brig named the Sophia, under the command of Captain Kelly, had arriv. ed at Otago harbour and anchored inside the Heads, somewhere in the vi. cinity of the Kaik. The cantnin and some members of the crew bad pulled round in a small boat to Murdering

Beach tn ■ <-nTmlv of potatoes, and were attacked bv the Natives there, some of t-hn partv being killed. This happened in the latter end of Decern, her. 1817. Kellv was nne of the number who escaped unhurt, but he subsequently encountered trouble with the Natives at the Kaik. where his brig was anchored. About 150 Na. tives swarmed ahnard the brig, but Kellv. with some fourteen men. armed x’ith sealing knives, cut their wnv through the Natives and drove them ofl' the vessel. The next day the crew from the brig set to work with crosscut saws and cut up some 40 enuoes for firewood and rut the wood on hoard the brig. The brig returned to Hobart Town on 22nd March. ISIS, with 3000 sealskins aboard. It was from this incident on the beach that the place got the name of Murdering Beach. The speaker thought the facts as related in the Hobart Town “Mercury” were authentic, although some of the figures ouoted were vorv much exaggerated. There was an account given bv Dr Hocken. but he (the speaker) did not look upon this ns accurate, as the dates were our by • t least nine years. The story was told to Dr Hocken by an old Macri chief. The lecturer then described the excavations which had taken pl ice in the vicinity of Murdering Beach, by a party which visited the locality in February last. He also exhibited a large number of articles found there, including greenstone implements and flute bones.