AN EAST COAST MYSTERY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9509, 9 May 1911, Page 2

AN EAST COAST MYSTERY.

DISCOVERY OF SKELETONS,

STRANGE FIND BY A CENSUS COLLECTOR,

VARIOUS THEORIES AND SUR- ' V MISES.

An extraordinary discovery appears to have been made by a census collector when, engaged 'at Riinanga, somewhere on the Napier-Taupo road. In a large hole or pit, out of which a tree was growing, he found a tin trunk of the old-fashioned'square type. The bottom was rustod away, and noar it' lay the'remains of two striped blankets, also what looked like two women's blouses. Near by were a- calico tent and some tent pegs. The remains of the leather handles of a portmanteau, together with the lock and original iron binding, were also disclosed. Next were found a, pair of baby's leather boots very well preserved, and in addition two skeletons, apparently those of a young man and a young woman,' two skeletons of youuger people, one Of a baby, two of older people, seven skeletons in all. The remains wero surmised to lie thoso of a whole family. No Maori mats, weapons, or utensils came to light. It is said that the discovery was made some two or throe'years previously by some telegraph linomon, who did not report the matter, fearing tho consequences of interfering with • possibly an ancient tapu. The modern articles suggest a tragedy, or a party, that perished from privation,;but the deeper buried bones indicate that the excavation was one of the burying places' of tho Maoris, It is significant that all'the'skulls wero at one end of the excavation. It is conjectured that this may have been a family that hid in the hole for safety at the time of tho Mohaka massacre, but as this event occurred'as far back as 1869 the articles appeared too well preserved for such a long period. Some of tho bones were sticking out of the earth, and some were covered nearly a foot,deep, the soil having fallen on them from the sides of the pit, Some of the bones appeared to. have been coated with some mixture that gave them a brownish colour. It is possible that further investigation may throw some additional light on the gruesome discovery,