FOOTPRINT MYSTERY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 194, 18 July 1939, Page 8

FOOTPRINT MYSTERY.

EARLY CONTROVERSY RECALLED WAIPUKURAU. July 15. The discovery of mysterious footprints in tho snow in the unexplored foothills of tho Ruahines has recalled earlier reports of the discovery by a Maori bushfeller near Gisborne of the supposed legendary reptile known to the Dlaoris as a kumi. A DVaipukurau resident, who has made a careful study of early newspaper files has now unearthed a still earlier controversy over tho alleged existence of a monster in Otaki Lake. in January, 1868, Ilev. A. Stock wrote to the Wellington Independent as follows: “Last week I heard from Dr. Smith, of the Manawatu, of a strange appearance in a lake near Otaki. I wrote to Archdeacon Hadfield, and he replied that the Natives had always told him that there was a large taniwha in Waitara Lake. About 1842. they positively asserted, they saw it upset a canoe ill which one of the Ngatitoa, chief Rangihaeba’s, slaves was drowned.” Dfr Stock goes on to quote from tlie archdeacon’s letter: “They have constantly cautioned my nephews from bathing in the lake,” tho archdeacon wrote. “About three weeks ago they were together on a hill 400 or 500 Sards off, looking down on tho lake, when they saw a ripple on the water. The water was very muddy (the lake is always clear, being deep), and they perceived an animal like an alligator, which appeared to Jinve a ridge on its back or neck. One of them considered it to be 15 feet, the other 20 feet, in length. It shortly disappeared round a point of land in the lake. My nephews are not imaginative, nor will they now bathe again in the lake. Tt was a calm, still evening, and the lake lias nothing floating about on it.”

This prompted the following comment in another Wellington daily of February 25, 1809: ‘‘We learn from a letter in the columns of a contemporary, that Mr Swainson is busily engaged fishing for the taniwha in Otaki Lake. He uses shark hooks baited with sheep. If these are sufficiently la.rge to tempt tho monster’s appetite, we may shortly expect to sec an account of the strange animal, reptile, or fish—whichever it may he —forming a new page in our chapter of natural history.”. No further references could be found in the files to either Mr Swainson or the object of his search. Recurring stories of the sighting of these creatures seem to suggest that New Zealand, too, may have its Loch Ness monster. If a specimen could lie found and caught, it would certainly form an additional attraction to tin’s Dominion in its Centennial year.