Museum Notes MYSTERY OF THE MORIORI

Southland Times, Issue 24109, 24 April 1940, Page 13

Museum Notes MYSTERY OF THE MORIORI

ADZES, AXES AND CHISELS PROCESSES USED IN MANUFACTURE Von Haast, quoting a letter of Alexander Shand, says: “Toki is the term for all stone axes (adzes?) including the lesser kind, toki panehe, and chisel, whao, or purupuru, all of which were used until 1830 or even later. Mr Shand states that he has never seen, in fact doubts the existence of, any of the toki-titaha, or large axes used by the Maoris, and common also to New Guinea, used for cutting the top and bottom edges of a cut, the ordinary forms being used to cut out the chip by chipping sideways like an adze. Moriori adzes closely resemble all the main types of the Maori stone implements with which most of us are familiar. But the strangest feature of the stone adzes from the Chathams is the extraordinary size of some of them, particularly when it is remembered that there are no large trees in the area on which they could be used. One adze which has been measured was 14 inches in length and this would be classed as unusually large even in New Zealand, where broad timbers tor house-building and canoe-making are easily obtained. For what purpose it can have been used at the Chathams is difficult to conjecture. It is quite unsuited for felling trees, and could hardly have been put to any other purpose " than dressing broad timber _ or dubbing out a canoe. But no Moriori woodwork that has been preserved approaches a size that would require tools as large as this one.

Far larger than this adze, however, is an unfinished adze in a private collection. It is 20 inches long, its cutting edge measures seven inches,_ and its weight is 301bs. The front is slightly concave longitudinally. If this huge adze had been finished the various measurements would have been reduced but little. The purpose of this implement can hardly have, been other than to gratify the ostentation of some Moriori ariki.

The eight processes used in tin. manufacture of Maori stone tools were all used by the Moriori. They were: 1. Hammering; 2. sawing; 3. flaking; 4. chipping; 5. pecking; 6. bruising; 7. grinding; and 8. polishing. Hammering.—This term is used to indicate the first process in which the stone was broken out in fairly largo blocks from the reef, seam or boulder. None of the heavy hammers used in this process has been preserved in collections and we do not know if fire was ever used to break up large boulders, a practice sometimes indulged in by the Maoris. Sawing.—By the Maoris, this process was generally used to reduce pounamu (greenstone) roughly to the required outline, though it was occasionally used in working other kinds of stone. A few pieces of Moriori material exist showing that they knew and used this process. THE MAJOR PROCESSES Flaking.—This term indicates the process in which fairly long flakes wert struck off the block which had been roughed by the hammers. The long flakes, often very sharp, were put to other purposes. Chipping.—This implies the removal from an edge of short, broad, small pieces. It is scarcely to be distinguished from flaking but as the pieces removed are much smaller, the implement worked on begins to take more of the outline of a finished tool. Pecking.—This indicates the striking of blows on a surface with a pointed instrument, each blow leaving a small pit. Evidence of this process is to be seen in many Moriori adzes. Bruising.—This term indicates the process by which the asperities left on a surface by flaking are pulverized and the surface is reduced to an even level. By the Maoris, small waterworn quartz pebbles were used for this purpose. Grinding—This process removed the roughness resulting from the bruising operations. Blocks of sandstone were obtained on which the adzes were ground, and if a block was sufficiently large a hollow was worn in it, in which the adze was rubbed with a rotary motion. In this way, face, back, and sides were reduced to plane or curved surfaces. The sharpening of the cutting edge was effected by moving the edge back and forth along a groove. According to Von Haast the grindstones (hoanga) were made of a coarse sandstone, generally found near the coast. Most of them had a flat surface but were otherwise somewhat round, varying in size from 7 to 12 inches. The hoanga was placed flat on the ground, and the implement was sharpened by rubbing it backwards and forwards on the stone, kept wet with water. The operation was tedious in the extreme. Polishing.—Some Moriori adzes were polished, but we have no information as to how the polish was produced. Whether the Morioris used either wooden burnishers or oil, as the Maoris did. has not been recorded. The material from which the Moriori adzes and chisels were made is described by Von Haast as: “Lydian stone, aphanite, dioritic and basaltic rocks, for the greater part, doubtless, obtained on the Chatham Islands, though there are some specimens in the Canterbury Museum, received from that locality.. of chert and of some other material which appear to have been imported from New Zealand.”