DID MAORIS ROAST MOAS IN HANGIS?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 11 June 1929, Page 2

DID MAORIS ROAST MOAS IN HANGIS?

KNOTTY POINT WORRIES MODERN INVESTIGATORS HISTORY IN WOOD STRIP v. . , , i Even if ancient Maoris with healthy appetites did hake moas in their 'hangis —ovens —they committed tho palpable blunder of neglecting to leave tlie bird's bones among the ashes (says the Auckland "Sun"). This oversight has caused investigators in modern New Zealand so much troubJo that 'two distinct schools of thought on tho question of moa-devour-ing sprung up.; ancient Maoris can hardly be taken to task for gross carelessness. It is reasonable to assume that, after a hurry-scurry through the scrub in pursuit of a speedy flock of moas, nothing was further from the minds of the hungry hunters than the possibility of dissension among modern investigators.

Mr A. T. Pycroft, member of the committee of the- Anthropology and Maori Section of the Auckland Institute and Museum, belongs to the school of investigators which contends |that the hapless moas were demolished on the spot by avid Maoris. Meanwhile, in Dunedin, Mr IT. D. Skinner, lecturer in anthropology fit Otago University, is collecting proof that moas were baked in hangis. lie has written to Mr Pycroft, telling of the activities of" a party hi unearthing moa bones at Little Tapnnui in an effort to solve the riddle.

"My own opinion is that the moas were eaten on the spot," Mr Pycroft said to tho section at its annual meeting last week. "It may be possible to get conclusive evidence, but it is a fact that no moa bones have yet been found actually in the ovens. There have been heaps of bones close to the ovens."

Mr Pycroft is of the opinion that \ Auckland has infinitely more opportuni- ' ties than Dunedin for such study of features in the life of the early Maoris. Last evening, he urged the section'to do its best during its coming year of work to build up interest in investigation. FOUND IN CAVE An interesting link with New Zealand's infancy was' shown to the section by Mr Gilbert Archey, curator of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. To the casual observer, the strip of wood which Mr Archey handled had no interesting features, yet it was found jn a South Island cave, and is undoubtedly of great antiquity. The most probable guess as to the' use of the wood bar is that it was an outrigger on a model or small native canoe.. The wood has all the appearance of the outriggers of canoes used by other South Sea Island races.

The Maoris undoubtedly used outrigger canoes at one stage, and there are even legends that outrigger canoes, besides the generally accepted double canoes, were used in the New Zealand Migration. One estimate is that outriggers passed Out of use in Aotea-roa by the end of the 18th century. Abel Jansen Tasman, who stumbled across New Zealand in 1642, recorded the presence of outrigger canoes at the disastrous first meeting of whites with natives at Massacre Bay. The Maoris seem to have persisted with, outriggers for a century or so, and then to have found that they were not needed in the rivers and coastal routes of the new. land. Tawhiti and Hawaiki fashions' forgotten, the Maoris evolved an all-New Zealand craft.'