MAORI CURIO HUNTING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2600, 13 January 1904, Page 73

MAORI CURIO HUNTING.

By Geo. C. B-vkek. To anyone who, like myself, is inclined to go out fossicking for curias m old lilaori camping ground", the occupation is a very fascinating one. Some years ago, when a resident of Southland, I had =plondid opportunities, which I did not neglect, of pursuing my favourite hobby. There is a la:gc tract of country between Invercarglll and Riverton, which at one time was splendid cattls and sheep-grazing land, that is now a desolate sand wasto of many hundred aoies in extent. The change took place on the advent of the rabbit, for it was here that the Southland Provincial Government fin-t turned the imported bunny adrift, protected against destruction by heavy fines and penalties, little dreaming of the scourge they had let loose upon the coun:ry at large. This particular area, slightly undulating, well watered, and sheltered by the cabbagetree and tall flax, consisted of about 2ft of alluvial coil on a sandy foundation. The rabbit burrowing through the soil allowed the wind to attack the sand, with the result that in a few years the whole of the soil was blown away, leaving a scries of moving ridges or hills of sand to take its place. As these sand ridges moved they did a tale unfold, for on the hard pan underneath lay the remains of the camps of the original mlia.bita.nts of New Zealand; and in the eyes of the student it was as a book suddenly unfolded, hidden up till then by the hand, or rather sand, of time. Some of these remains — perhaps 20ft below the original surface, and which must have been buried by the sand and after-growth for ages — appeared as if left but (geologically speaking) jt&sterday. There was a heap of fishbones and shell-fish remains; here a piece of sandstone on which the rude stone axes had been rubbed ; over there (we would call it the workshop) a heap of stoneehippings and perhaps one or two partiallyformed implements ; pieces of hematita colour lay here and there. Perhaps, if you were fortunate (as one frequently was), you would find a finished axe or chisel. Now we come to the basin of stones forming the Maori oven, on which charcoal in good preservation still lay ; and last, but not least, the broken leg and other bones of the cooked and eaten inoa. The little heap of sto-ies (said to be tho contents of the moa's crop) and pieces of the big bird's eggshell, together with other evidences, all pointed to the fact that the mca, to the original inhabitant of New Zcalond, was a domesticated bird, since destroyed by the Maori ; for if this bird had to be hunted, the hunters would surely nei &r burden themselves with r>seless portions of its anatomy, including half a bucket of pebblestone, its entrails and huge claws, etc. In walking over the sand, whenever we came upon these heaps of 9emi-traneparent stones reliance could as a rule be pieced upon the fact that moa, bones were in the immediate vicinity. I said "last but not least" to the moa bones. There was yet another product or sign of this ancient New Zealandtr we used to find about his camp?, and these were flint chipping? apparently broken off a parent piece of stone by a blow or scr'es of blows that took the flints off fiakewise, in which shape they could apparently be usod for cutting puipo<=es, thiown aside when chipped or blunted, and a new flsko substituted. Now there would be nothing wonderful in these flints themselves wero it not that thoir colours, ranging from jet black to purest milky white and thence on to transparency, made r. collection of them a very pretty thing indeed. I have bicwns, purples, gieys, and yellows, which, together with the black obsidian (volcanic glass) also used, are well worth inspecting. Where these flints used so abundantly came fiom was a very mystifying thing. Now, as I before- stated, we had pplendid hunting or collecting giounds down south, for the plrce I have described formed only one of many, all within a few hours' walk of Invercargill ; and the first thing I did on leaving there and arming in Dunedin. some years ago was to make a bee-line for the sandhills at St. Clair, which I had before seen at a distance only, as a very likely hunting ground. My search, however, tim absolutely fruitless. There are Maori oven traces, but nothing else. Between St. Claii* and Lawyer's Head I found two flints, and on Tomahawk Beach three or four pieces. I was much disappointed, as the plpces secm°d do likely to produce something. On the harbour cide of the Peninsula, however, I was more successful. I had up till this year not been any farther along the coast-line of the Peninsula than Tomahawk Beach, and always had the idea that there must be something farther along; to that on January 2, 1904, I made a tour along the coast as near as po": b.o from Lawyet's Head to Iloopor's Inl^-t, searching the tv.o beaches uv.d sandhills en route. I found nothing worth speaking about until in the vicinity of Sandymount. Finding several small flints, I proceeded with a search, and row believe that I have discovered one of the sources of rappiy. I had nothirg but a knife w'lh me, and the day v"w nearly done, do I had to defer a"iy f urine* ei-ploiation uvtil ai.other time — a f i acevant of which, raid the results, I vi'll bo o'-d to gi\e« you. Meanwhile :t: t might \ o i'it°icsting to kr.ow if any of the- lea-nod profo.vors now in our mid^t have made thn flint n'agp raid pioc irr'gc a special studs* If so, I would lik" to meet them, show my trearurcs, and get ths benefit of a sa*. ant's opinion.

"WOLFE'S &CHJN~APP3— Aa ideal EPirii £or msn and women.