THE ROCK CARVINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19141, 6 October 1925, Page 10

THE ROCK CARVINGS.

OPINION OF DR. P. H. BUCK, CANOES RESEMBLE MAORI. CHARACTERISTIC DESIGNS. A reference to the rock carvings discovered on a cliff face in the Kaingaroa district was made by Dr. P. H. Buck in the course of his lecture under the auspices of the Anthropological and Maori Race section of the Auckland Institute at the Auckland University College last evening I)r. Buck first of all traced the history of New Zealand peoples and said evidence was gradually being collected which seemed to indicate that the Maori had been in New Zealand for a far longer period than tradition would lead us to believe. He then mentioned that from what could be gained, from a perusal of the photographs of the rock carvings sent down from Kaingaroa the canoes depicted on the cliff-face greatly resembled the Maori canoe with the slight differences that would be expected at the hands oi a carver. He illustrated his meaning by explaining that certain features of canoe models were usually exaggerated by the carver, for if such a model were measured it would be seen that the bow and the high stern were usually out of all proportion to the rest of the hull. Such an j exaggeration might easily have been imparted to the rock carvings and it was noticeable that a series of double spirals had been added to the sides of the canoes, another evidence of the play of the artist's imagination. He would not say the carvings were not centuries old, but to his mind they looked like Polynesian canoes and he thought on the present evidence that the people who made the carvings were related to the Maoris. If a search of the locality revealed stone, adzes or other primitive tools these would give a quite definite clue to the period of the work and indicate the people who executed it. NOT EGYPTIAN OR EUROPEAN. PROF. MACMILLAN BROWN'S VIEW. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN COJOISSrONDENT. ] CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. "I should prefer not to say much about it until I know more of it," said Professor Macmillan Brown, when asked to express an opinion regarding the discovery of ancient rock carvings near Rotorua. The professor had, however, one comment to make. The form that these carvings were reported to take, he said, was not Egyptian or European, as had been surmised, but was a form that would be found right through the Malay Archipelago. "My own impression," he said, "is thai the representations are of the common canoe on which the higher framework afterwards .goes. The original canoe was low and not far above the water. The higher structure was put on when they began to carry passengers. You will see this type right through the Malay Archipelago. '