OTAGO MUSEUM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19335, 27 May 1937, Page 11

OTAGO MUSEUM

RECENT ACQUISITIONS TREASURES FROM NEAR AND FAR Beautifully carved from whale-ivory, one of a pair of Maori amulets found by some railway workers in the Kaikoura district, has recently been secured by the authorities of flic Otago Museum. The amulet, which was found with its fellow wrapped in bark in a hollow tolara tree, resembles nothing so much as the body of a tnatara lizard with numerous tiny human legs attached, these latter being so delicately executed that at first sight they appear to be a piece of fragile tracery. Similar amulets found at Wiukclifte Hay and the clip at St. Clair are also to be seen in the museum, but they are not nearly so artistically carved as this latest acquisition." The other amulet is in the Dominion Museum, Wellington. Another recent addition to the museum exhibits is a Maori flax scraper ol beautiful translucent greenstone, which was found at Kcnepura Sound, -Marlborough. Perforated for suspension as it pendant when not in use, the scraper is serrated on the upper edge, the lower portion being ground to a keen cutting edge. Another ilax scraper, a shapclj specimen fashioned from mottled greenstone, also perforated for wear as a pendant, has been added to the Maori section of the museum. This came from Otago Peninsula. From the Chatham Islands has conic a particularly interesting group, the outstanding feature of which is a collection of reel-shaped beads, carved from whaleivory, and apparently portion of a neck lace'. This pattern of bead is very old in Polynesia, and is well represented m New Zealand, while the same form frequently occurs in collections from the Marquesas Islands. Those of New Zealand origin are made mostly from choice varieties of stone, and not infrequently the Maoris used them for drill weights. It is not generally known that opal may be found in New Zealand, but visitors to the museum may see among a group presented by Mr. J. G. Hat"rate a mass of andosite rock from loknToka, North Auckland, bearing small pieces of opal which' have apparently been caught up from a sandstone deposit as the andesite forced its way through