BURIED MERES.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 129, 3 June 1920, Page 5

BURIED MERES.

y A STRANGE REa)VEK¥

; Levin Cfoi-oniele/says thai the Kiiku Maori ccsmm»unity has: been 'stirred by the recovery'of two valur able whalebone meres iburied"""for" many yeara. The paper relates that ; they were discovered; by thie aid of a : Native woman, Mi's Takurangi> wife : of the Hon. Te Heu Heu Tukino: 1 M.LvC, who claims te> possess powers of divination. The seen©' was laid off the main Kuku rcraJ,. and a £e\t hundred yards to the rear of Me Pink's residence. Leading a procession of about 120 persons, tie -chief y> actor took a course for -..-. same distance tli rough the bush and) iSheni over some maize cultivations, and! again entered a bush pathway, wMe&r.. ci entnally i earned a stagnant, weed-covered; watercourse. Here she halted, and placing a:-stick in the grpuiid at the water'a. ed^e. declared that the lost vmeres would be found -there.! A spade was procured, and on digging down a depth of about twq feet the mores were xuiearthed. ' ' '

' Mr Robert Itansfield, of Manakau.bne of the oldest Natives of this coast;' stated that the weapons were owned by their ancestors, Korpniria and Paretiwhana, who buried the meres to prevent their being. lost, but prior to their deaths didl not inform their descendants of the hiding plsce. The patv.s were formerly veapons of war, and, being tapu, were greatly treasured. It was believed that the loss /of the patus had acted detrimentally to the* well-being of the later generations of the former chieftain"- owners, hence the desire +o recover them and break the evil-spell.