A CENSUS COLLECTOR'S FIND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2983, 17 May 1911, Page 5

A CENSUS COLLECTOR'S FIND.

SEVEN SKELETONS IN A HOLE. (Fkom Odb Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, May 8. The Wairoa correspondent of the Napier Telegraph states that a census collector at Runanga, on the Napier-Taupo road, recently made a rather ghastly find. In a hole in the bush he found an old rusted tin trunk, and near it lay the iremains of two striped blankets with fringes, also what looked like two women's blouses, one red and the other a deep blue. There was also found a calico tent so folded that some of the overlaps were in a fairly good state of preservation, whilst appropriately enough near .by were some maitai tent-pegs. The remains of the leather handles of a portmanteau and the iron binding with the lock attached were disclosed, also a piece of board with handles on it and " dished " on one of its sides, making it somewhat like what the Maoris once used for kneading dough upon. So far the relics appeared merely to suggest the cache of some inland but a new aspect was opened up by the discovery of a pair of babies' leather boots very well preserved. Next came to light a pair of skeletons, evidently those of a young man and a young woman, then two skeletons of younger people, and another of a baby, probably at one time the owner of the boots, and still more skeletons, this time two of older people, apparently a man and a woman. There were seven skeletons in all, in a fairly good state of preservation, but the baby's skull split in half at the upper cranium sutore on being touched. Some of these bones wero sticking out of the earth, and some were covered nearly a foot deep with 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 colour. I have said that the remains seemed to be these of a whole family. Whether they vfere European or Maori I could not ascertain, but no Maori weapons, mats, nor utensils were seen. It is conjectured that this may have been a family that hid in the hole for safely at the time of the Mohaka massacre, but as this event occurred as far 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 die-covery, but did not report the 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 suggest a tragedy, or a party that perished from privations, but the deeper buried bones suggest that the hole was one of the sacred burying places of the Maoris. At any rate the discovery suggests inquiry.

His Worship the Mayor has supplied us with a possible explanation of the discovery. The telegram mentioned thai it was conjectured that the corpses might be those of a family that hid for safety in a hole at the time of the Mohaka massacre in 1869. Mr Burnett suggests that the corpses were those of the Levin family —father and mother and three children, who were massacred by the Mohakas and were buried by a company of the Hawke'a Bay Militia, in which he was at that time an ensign. This company was seat to the relief of the Europeans and found the dead bodies of the members of the family.