HUGE MAORI ADZE

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6409, 1 November 1923, Page 6

HUGE MAORI ADZE

A VALUABLE RELIC A huge stone adze from the Chatham Islands, which was recently acquired by the Otago University Museum, was exhibited at the last meeting of the Otago Institute. Mr H. D. Skinner, who exhibited it, stated that the Museum had for some time possessed a group of three Maori adzes believed td be the largest trio from the Chatham Islands in any collection. These measured respectively 12in, 14iin and 14Sin in length, and 4|, 4| and 41in in width, and weighed 4Mb, 51b and 551 b. The new adze, however, turned these three into pygmies, for it weighed 291 b 4oz —more than twice as much as all * three put together. Its length is 192 in, and its cutting edge is 7in across. It is complete in every respect except that the blade is unpolished. It has a well defined ‘grip’ (the region round which passed the cord attaching ’it to the wooden helve), and in cross section it is recitilinear, thus conforming to p <% nesian adze types in the two most important characteristics. A feature of the implement which is very unusual in Maori and Moriori adzes is the sudden expansion of the blade as it comes to the cutting edge, just as is phe case with modern steel axes, but this feature could, said Mr Skinner, be paralleled elsewhere in the Pacific, notably in the case of two large stone adzes from Pitcairn Island in the British Museum collection.. The purpose of this huge and unweildy implement could only be conjectured. In the first place its weight was so great that even if a man could be found strong enough to wield the adze, it would inevitably tear away from the wooden helve on the first impact with the timber. More insuperable than even this difficulty is the fact that the Chatham Islands produce only small trees; indeepl, there were none large enough to provide even small dug out canoes, and the Morioris were forced to develop a wash through vessel made of rods and twigs and buoyed up by the air sacs of the bull kelp. Mr Skinner therefore suggested that the purpose of the maker of the adze might be to gratify feelings of ostentation by displaying an adze far larger than anyone else had evei‘> dreamed of. It was interesting to compare the Moriori giant with others jin the University Museum. One, from the Bluff, excelled it in length, being 21Mn over all, but this example had only been roughed, and would probably never have been finished. A narrow adze from the Clutha district was 16in long and weighed 641 b, while a large Pounawea adze 14in in length turned the scale at 91b. Surpassing these is a great tree felling ‘punch’ (not an adze) from the Otago Heads 17in in length, and weighing 14Mb. In the Dominion Museum is the huge and splendidly finished Maori adze from the Buffer collection 22Mn long, 42in wide, and 1121 bin weight. The largest Hawaiian adze recorded in Brigham’s memoir is 21in long and weighs ■pjlb. The largest stone cutting implement in the collection of the Australian Museum, Sydney, is an alanond shaped adze from the Fly river, -which, when weighed before the Pan Pacific Congress, turned the scale at l&flb. It will thus be seen that the Moriori implement vastly exceeds in size -any implement from the Pacific known to our museum authorities. The British Museum, however, possesses a stone celt from the African Gold. Coast which is stated in their hand-book to be 28in long. Its weight is not given, but it can hardly be less than that of its Moriori rival.