ESTABLISHED 1875. Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Conducted by E. D. HOBEN. Published Every Morning. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1910. MEGALITHIC NEW ZEALAND.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 957, 8 March 1910, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1875. Manawatu Daily Times. The Oldest Manawatu Journal. Conducted by E. D. HOBEN. Published Every Morning. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1910. MEGALITHIC NEW ZEALAND.

It has been one of the curious things ln oonueotiou with New Zealand that though it must haye been in remote times a goodly laud for man to dwell in, there are not to be found i" it, so far as is known, remains of any ancient civilization, or iu .fact of any race beyond the Moriori if we except some vague legends of an earlier aborigine of primitive type. The irrepressible Mr Clement Wragge made a fair start yesterday to supply the omission by an aocoont of weird remains of a Megalithio Civilization of ancient sun worshipped in the shape of remains of a temple or city near the Bay of Islands, wi.ioh lie is iiaid to have discovered. There were said to. be hewn stones 15ft loug bearing writings ovidc; tly the work of prehistotio man. Tho Maori was so close au observer that it is hardly likely that anything of the sort, would have escaped him and it seems that Mr-Wragge was anticipated by both Maori ami European observers who feuew these stones well and believe them .to bo remains of an anoient Maori feastiug stage wlnoli the Maori legend attributes to the navigator Kupe. The late Mr John White Inotured on them as far baok as 1858, and both Mr Hamilton and Mr Stowell, of* Wellington, testify to their knowledge of the stones, but they think that Mr Wragge 's writings" are merely the weathering of the voloanic stones or bombs and the cavities that are usual in them. It is rather a pity that Mr Wragge's disoovery so soon exploded for it would have been interesting to have really found such antiquities m this country as exist on the Asian and Amerioan continents and the Asiatic Islands find at Easter Island, If tho tJiaory of oontiuuouß land was correct it is singular that no material record of anoient civilizations .has been found in New Zealand, whioh would seem to be practically unique among habitable lands in this lack of antiquity. . .'