MAORI AXES AND THE UMUTAOROA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11120, 12 January 1899, Page 4

MAORI AXES AND THE UMUTAOROA.

f Concerning the Maori axes which have 3 been unearthed in the Unrutaoroa, Mr J. 3 M'Gaughran puts forward a conjecture : ' — A beautiful nameless vanished lake exJ isted, probably over a thousand years ago, 3 its extreme boundaries being between 1 Uinutaoroa and Matamau in the north, ' and the Manawatu Gorge hills in the E south. In it could have been found good 3 anchorage for ships of considerable toni nage, about the place where Woodville 1 now stands, but a very long cable would 7 have been required to bottom it. What is t now Danevirke was under water too. 3 There were then only patches of ) bush, and of the table lands and 3 terraces to which the name of Umntaoroa i has been misapplied ; only those at the [ end of the lake were habitable. On these 3 terraces, composed of dry volcanic ash as ; pure as the day it was thrown up, there , lived a very intelligent people who came 3 from the lakes of the South Island, or b some other far off island. They brought 3 with them beautiful jet black and dark b blue material, greenstone, &c, which t they shaped into hearts and carving 1 tools as sharp as a knife to carve their 3 canoes, in which they went on to the lake to fish. A great earthquake parted . the banks of the Manawatu, leti ting the waters of the lake run t into the sea, and leaving the fc canoes high and dry in tho Umutaoroa, ■ and the tribe fled in fear at the disapfc pearance of the lake. He believes every E word of this to be true, and finds proof in f the great gap in the Manawatu Gorge, I the mud deposits around Woodville, the , washed and silted flats of Tahoraite, - caused by the receding water, and lastly , in the carving tools he has found on his i property, and a stone heart found at the - same place by Mr L. Creedie, who is in ) his employ. The tools are ground, like a i chisel, on one side. The stone hearts were ' never made by cannibals, as the Maoris ' were in -years gone by, but were in the ' possession of an intelligent race long - before the Maoris saw New Zealand. If , a Maori battle had been fought in or 3 near the Umutaoroa, where a number of I skulls were found 15 or 20 years ago, i tomahawks and battle axes would also - have been found on the surface, but the 3 tools found on his place were embedded 3 six to nine inches in the soil, proving that ■ they were there before the times of ) Maori warfare. — Bush Advocate.