SEA FRONTAGES

Opunake Times, 16 January 1934, Page 2

SEA FRONTAGES

PLACES OF INTEREST. Tlie week-end weather was rough in the morning, pleasant in the afternoon and there was a verv. fair attendance on the Opunake beach. The tide was out and the sand area was fresh and healthy for frolicsome fun. Among the big stones, barefooted urchins, with "corduroy" toes, found amusement catching crustaceans and picking up bright shells.

Mr Arthur Fake, with a hobby for fishing boats, has built a sub« stantial fishermen's wharf, and made provision of the safety to launch and "put out" to sea his motor launch. The unseasonable weather has been right against launch fishing. The enterprise of Mr Fake deserves reward in goorl hauls of wealth from the depths of the sea.

The frequent prevailing westerly winds and rain showers have un covered a small area of tussock and other growth near the old Xainu Maori I01T; "A glimpse of the uncovered area reveals past Maori history. Deep with chaicoal remains of bones and shells, the now peaceful pasturage was one time the site of many savage tribal battles. The period would be when the Opunake township was covered with flax and ti-tree and long snouted pigs rooted fern on the site of the main road and kakas and wekas screeched before the invention of motor horns and cycle disturbances. It is 80 years past since H.M.S. Tiger, was sent by the N.S.W. authorities to search for shipwrecked persons —put into Namu Bay. Prior to that time the Maoris made a secret channel in the bay for safe landing of the tribe's canoes and a dangerous one for an invasion of enemy canoes. Signs of the channel can still be pointed out by old members of the tribe. Several large boulders were left so that only the tribe's pilots knew how to negotiate the channel with safety, and a trap to smash the invaders' canoes.