PACIFIC RESEARCH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18759, 16 July 1935, Page 13

PACIFIC RESEARCH

DISCOVERIES IN FIJI ANCIENT CIVILISATION INSCRIPTIONS ON ROCKS ; ‘ ‘ j Del ails of his discovery of t races of art ancient civilisation in Fiji are disclosed by .Mr. A. .1. Vogan, who returned to Auckland' by '•tin's Ao'rungi, bringing photographs of inscriptions which lie' re■cently unearthed, on the site of a prehistoric shrine, on the second largest island of the group, Vanua Leva. Similar inscriptions of which Mr. Vogan obtained photographs and casts in cave temples in the Pasawa. Islands in 1930, and which are now in the museums of the. -Cambridge and. Manchester Universities, were declared by eminent authorities to lie Indo-Chinese of abou 2000 years ago. Publication of descriptions of Mr. 'Vogan’s finds in tho Yasawa Islands brought him news of similar inscriptions in Fiji, as a result of which, lie declares, a wide field of archaeological 'research has been opened up there. Enough lias been discovered to show that the Pacific was peopled from India and that. Asian prospectors and traders explored it hundreds, if not thousands#, of years' before the White, man entered it, but as yet “the surface has only just been scratched,” ANCIENT SHRINE “In a 16ft, rowing boat, manned by Fijians, 1 recently crossed the turbulent Som Som Strait to the bay and village of Dhk-ni-ba. oil the southern shore of. Vaiiua Lcvu,” said Mr. Vogan. “The meaning of ihc name, ‘Behind the Fence,” is itself significant in consideration of what I found there; for, after passing through the native 1 found an unmistakable ancient road leading steeply upwards to where, hundreds of years ago, further progress was barred by a fortified fence. Two carven monoliths had formerly* stood, one on each side of the. gateway* through which t.lio road passed. They had fortunately fallen with their carven faces uppermost, revealing deeply-cut symbols similar to those 1 had previously found in the Yasawa Islands. The fence ran to the edge of a mountain torrent at the one end and to the steep mountain side at the other, while at its foot, to the west of the gate, the hard volcanic rock had been smoothed down to form a difficult- glacis. FORMERLY A PORT? “To judge by the similar places found, the' little valley beyond this fortification was the. ‘holy of holies of the adventurers from Java and IndoChina who made Duk-ni-ba a port- of call when they explored the islands hundreds of venvs ago, the present village of a few" straggling native buls being so named because of the shrine they built there.” 'The evidence that be has collected during 20 years’ research has convinced Mr. Vogan that at least three different civilisations have obtained, to a United extent, in the Western Pacific, and it is Ids theory that the advent of the mosquito led’ to the passing of the last, as it. lias done in other lands.