A RELIC OF ANCIENT NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9028, 5 November 1892, Page 9 (Supplement)

A RELIC OF ANCIENT NEW ZEALAND.

There is now being ploughed up in the Wharehine District, Auckland, a portion of the ancient hunting ground of the Maoris, where they once chased tho moa Co its doom, with all the consequent excitement and the rites in connection with it. This ground is the most thickly-covered with clusters of moa gizzard stones of any portion of the same space known in the district. The land slopes down in an easterly direction towards the Takapau Creek, and belongs to Mr. Henry Marsh, and while ploughing on the 14bh of October, he turned up an old club of maire, still showing thab it had once been well shaped, and although time has made its mark upon it, yet it has defied destruction. The length is llf inches, and the upper end 2£ inches in diameter, tapering to the end of the handle, where it then terminates in a diameter of little over three-quarters of an inch. This old club has, no doubb, given the coup de grace to many a moa, and where this ancient relic was discovered I made a point of visiting on the 15th, as the same had been brought over and presented to me, A careful examination of the surroundings was made, which shewed the club had gradually become buried by the repeated washings from off the surface, which extended to about 25 chains back to the main ridge. This had taken a long time before ib came to be covered over with six inches of earth, as the surface of the ground is hard, and is what is known as kauri gum land. Ib yields close upon 3cwb. of gum bo the acre. Close to the spot where tho club lay there were the gizzard stones of the moa, and only a few paces from the creek. Then further along, down the creek side, close upon 15 paces, there cropped up out of the ground the stones of an old Maori oven, with bits of burnt wood and earth intermixed, bub, singular to say, no shells were found in the vicinity. As I have frequently examined numbers of these old cooking places, this is somewhat significant, and looks as if the Maoris may have only cooked tho moa here. Another strange thing also occurs, the hangi, or oven, is on a slope of a small hill forming an angle of about 40 degrees, thus making ib appear thab there had been a subsidence, bub from the general appearance of the hill no breaks were seen in ib. Possibly it may have been caused during one of the severe convulsions or upheavals thab the island has been subject to a long time back, the more so from the fact that ib is some feet higher than high-water mark of the creek. Then looking ab the flab shallow creek several chains in width, with some large kauri trees partly buried in. it, one of these forming an angle of 45 degrees, which upper portion where the branches have their forks extending for some feet, helps still further to this conclusion. Another remarkable thing connected with this ground is that near the westerly end of those clusters of moa gizzard stones were found the two egg-shaped stones, and at the easterly end the club. The ground between the two measures 65 chains, and comprises over 100 clusters of these stones, and this within a width of 25 chains. As these groups become known I place their position upon a plan of the district, so that A record of them may be always preserved. Numerous other relics have fallen into my hands recently, all of which bear in some manner upon the past of this district, and also corroborate in a most substantial manner an accounb of the last battle that took place here many years ago, given with graphic inberest by several tattooed old Maoris ab their native settlement. Ib is my intention to make the collection of these relics a valuable record, and to retain them in the colony. It » 8 quite true that many valuable treasures have left the colony thab would have been a source of delighb to the cornjng genera, tion. However, it is just possible thab with the assistance of many of the settlers who have taken a deep interest in the «£*«.<« the preservation of these curios that we may in the course of time obtain one of the mosb valuable collections from one district) yet obtained in New Zealand. 8.5,8, ;