RARE MAORI TREASURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 December 1924, Page 8

RARE MAORI TREASURE

IMMENSE GREENSTONE; ADZE The largest greenstone Maori adze that lias yot been found is the latest exhibit secured for the Auckland Museum, and it comes from the Waikato district, says the Star. Beside the or-, dinary adze of the Maori race this specimen allows up as a colossal implement,too large and weighty, to be considered a tool fashioned for the daily work of the ancient Maori craftsman.” There, is every reason for the belief that it- is a

“ceremonial” adze, made for special gift purposes to- commemorate some great tribal occasion, and that it may yet be discovered to have a distinct name and •history. There are two. other ceremonial adzes recorded One of tht-m r aboujt 20 inches in length, is amongst- the Buller collection in the Dominion Museum of Wellington, and the other, about 22 inches in length, is in the Wanganui Museum. The latter has a distinct name, and for a long time it lay in a house untouched by the Maoris, vyko faithfully recognised the tapu which had been put upon it on the . - - casion which it had been formed specially to commemorate. These ceremonial adzes of the Maoris are not common, and they have their European parallel .in the silver trowel sometimes presented to a notability, on the occasion of the laying of the foundation-stone of a public building. In the ancient Maori life the ceremonial adze commemorated the cutting down of a large tree for the purpose c? a war canoe, or for use 'in the building of a pataka, (storehouse). The two ceremonial adzes previously feline! are of a black stone known as apanite, but the specimen which has just been unearthed in the Waikato is a beautifully veined greenstone, and is an excellent sample of the stone so greatly treasured by the Maori race. It is 27iri. in length, din in breadth, and 161 b in weight. Despite its great size, it is beautifully proportioned and worked, tlie clearance ring at the junction of blade and handle and the gradation of the blade to a sharp edge showing artistic craftsmanship. This find has not only the distinctions common to the three known spe:nn«ns, out it is the largest yet found, and it has the further distinction of being the only true greenstone, ceremonial adze, in colour, knoyyn to bo ,in existence.