MAORI ROCK DRAWINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25305, 16 August 1943, Page 4

MAORI ROCK DRAWINGS

Sir,—Reading in this morning’s Daily Times the Right Rev. J. G. Laughton’s theories on the origin of the wonderful Maori drawings by the early Maoris at Duntroon has prompted me to make a few comments upon some statements in which he has deviated from accepted authority. The drawings at Duntroon contain two distinct types, the upper being obviously of a much earlier (Morion) origin than the lower (Maori), and these in common with those at Cave, and at Hanging Rock, in the Opihi Valley, are not drawn in the blood of sacrificed victims, but in paint or “ kokowai.” a mixture of red ochre and whale oil, ground together between flat stones. The statement that the body of a man which was found buried in a squatting position under one of these rock drawings, was obviously a human sacrifice, is not correct, as the custom of binding a corpse in this position and burying it at the foot of a rock or tree was a common practice among- the Maori people. Some years ago a very - celebrated American ethnologist, whose name I cannot remember, was sent to New Zealand by the Rockefeller Institute for the express purpose of studying and recording these wonderful drawings, and it is my good fortune to possess a photographic record of his work given to me by his associate in New Zealand, the late John Hardcastle, of Timaru.—l am, etc., E. H. Ombler.