SEVEN SKELETONS IN A HOLE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10764, 11 May 1911, Page 6

SEVEN SKELETONS IN A HOLE.

A GRUESOME FIND. (Press Correspondent.) AYelliugton, May 8. The Wairou. correspondent of the Napier Telegraph states that a census collector atßunanga, on the NapierTaupo road, recently made a rather ghastlv lind. In a hole in the bush he ■ found' an uld rusted tin trunk, and near it lay" the remains of two striped blankets with fringes/ also what looked like two women's blouses,- one red and the other deep blue.. There-was also found a calico teiit; so folded that somie of the overlaps wereriii? a fairly good state of preservation,, wliilst appropriately enough near by were some maitai tent-pegs; 1 The remains' of the leather handle's of-a.portmanteaiv and the iron binding : ,with the lock .attached were disclosed, also a piece"" of "board with handles on it iind "dished" on one of its sides,, making, it somewhat like what the Maoris once used, for kneading dougli'up'on. So.far'the relics ap,- • peafed-'merely to suggest'the cache of-so'me inlaiid bucaneer,.--but a aspect was; opened up by. tlie discovery s 'of''a pair "of Jbabies' leather boots very well-preserved. . Next« came to light a pair of."skeletons, evidently those of a young man and a young svoman, then two\skeletons of younger people, and auother of a baby, probably at one time the owner of the boots, and still more skeletons, this time two of older people, apparently a maii and, a woman. There were 'seven skeletons in all, in a fairly good state of preservation, but the baby's skull- split in half, fat the upper cranium sutore on being touched. Some of these bones were sticking out of the earth, and some were covered nearly a foot deep witli earth which had fallen from the sides of the pit. The remains were surmised to be those of a whole family, though there may be others beneath, for the investigator was armed only with a tent peg for exploration purposes. It is significant that all the skulls were at one end of the hole; which was not unlike many similar ones to be found all over .that district. Some of the bones were white and others further in the earth were brown as if coated with some mixture that gave them that color, I have said that the remains seemed to be those of a whole family. Whether they were European" .on Maori: f. could not ascertain, but no ,'Maori weapons, mats, nor utensils were seen; 1 It is''conjectured'that this may have been a family that hid in-the hole for safety-at the' time of tire" Mohaka massacre, but as:this event occurred as for back as' 1869, the articles' appeared ,too well preserved for such a long •period: Several Tarawera people who were spoken to regarding the gruesome "find" did not seem to ' have .heard ; about- it before,' -but the Tarawera schoolmaster, or postmaster, I forget which, admitted that two or three years ago some telegraph linesmen working near this spot made the- same discovery, but did not report tho matter, fearing that these remains might be those of Maoris, and the law of Tapu might be , put in operation--against them. '■ The modern articles suggested a tragedy, or a party that 'perished, from privations, bub the deeper buried bones suggest that was one of tho sacred burying places of the Maoris. At any rate the discovery suggests inquiry.