ARAPUNI CAVE DRAWINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19658, 9 June 1927, Page 12

ARAPUNI CAVE DRAWINGS.

QUESTION OF AUTHORSHIP. CAVES USED AS A REFUGE. The cave drawings discovered in the Arapuni Gorge last year formed the subject of a lecture by Mr. G. Archey, curator of the Auckland Museum, at the meeting of the anthropological section of the Auckland Institute on Tuesday evening. Mr. Archey said the drawings showed a series of sketches of canoes, apparently of the war canoe type, displaying typical stern posts and figureheads and in several cases equipped with sails. Although they differed in some respects they were not river canoes, all being of the seagoing type. The caverns did not show indications of having been permanently occupied. Although a hearth -was discovered and pipi shells were found in the debris on the floor these suggested the caves had been only temporarily inhabited. Ihe presence of the coastal shells raised the question whether the Maoris who used the caves were coast people or from the interior. In discussion following the lecture, Mr. G Graham said a tribe known as Ngatihotu had inhabited the neighbourhood, having been gradually ousted from the coast bv a more warlike people. Ihe shells suggested that some of them had used the cave as a refuge. Regarding the canoes shown in the drawings he believed they were of a type developed subsequent to the arrival of the Arawa and Tainui canoes in 1325. They were similar in pattern to those shown in Captain Cook's plates. A lecture on the study of anthropology was given by Mr. W. Page Rowe, who touched upon the problems presented by the art, religion and mythology of the Maori race. He urged that those studying anthropology should specialise in ono department of knowledge.