MAORI QUARRIES

Hokitika Guardian, 1 June 1935, Page 2

MAORI QUARRIES

AN ECHO OF THE EARLY DAYS

THAMES, May 30

Reference to a reported find of an old Maori quarry on th e Coromandel Peninsula and a plea for freedom from interference for certain sites sacred to his people were made yesterday by Mr P. 11. Tukariri. The quarry in question is one of a number ,\nown to) exist in the high ranges north of Coromandel, this being a favoured locality owing to the presence of the well-known black basalt rock, from which the majority of native implements were made. “This quarry is known to us,” writes Mr Tukariri. “It is situated in the Moketewha Ranges, two miles east of the Koputauaki and Paparoa Pas. I visited it in 1896 during the Coromandel gold rush. In those days gold was supposed to he heaped up in a cave near th e quarry. “There are lots of these quarries I and caves in New Zealand, but the Maoris do not want the pakeha to know where they are. The Maoris know of other strange things in Hauraki and Moehan, but we do not want them destroyed. They are better as they are. Kia Ora.”

The occurrence of Maori quarries was discussed yesterday by Mr G. Graham, who stated that il was usual to break out the rough stone on the spot and then transport this raw material to he worked into implements at leisure in security of the pas. Sometimes a certain amount of preliminary ■ work was done on the spot. The onewa, or blackstone, was prized for adzes and meres, as it was able to stand a great force of impact, without shattering, and an edge worked on the implement was not easily dulled.

The fact that quarries remained undiscovered was due to two main reasons. the chief being that more than.**, centir v ago', the more easily-obtained metal implements of the white man became available. At least two generations had passed since the stone had any economic significance. Meanwhile the s ; tes of the quarries had been lost in the forest on the ranges. Tt was also possible that the original Maoris who worked the stone had been conquered hv succeeding tribes, and the original knowledge lost.