MR. WRACCE'S DISCOVERIES.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12771, 18 April 1910, Page 4

MR. WRACCE'S DISCOVERIES.

Mr. A. Mackay, the well-known New Zealand geologist, writing about Mr Wragge's alleged prehistoric discoveries in tha north of Auckland, says : — No man has seen in New Zealand anything like architectural erections in stone giving evidence that the builders were acquainted with th© dressing and placing of stone, so as to form walls and pillars, even though they be monoliths and arches, or that any portions of these were ornamented with crosses/triangles, or cups, or had' these ihscr ibecpf or ceremonial utility. Prismatic columns of basalt, dolorites, or andesite may be found at all angles between horizontal and vertical. Therefore, a .single column standing at forty-five degrees is neither uncommon nor rare. Let Mr Wragge visit some parts of Coromandel pejiinsula, and he will discover many eudh temples both in the undesites and the rhyolitic rocks of that district. In the Whi^ianga and "Gumtown districts he will' discover a perfect Egypt of like prehistoric remains. You haye said that, if mistaken, Mr Wragge* is in good company. That is true, as the following will show. When after the retirement of Sir James Hector I filled the position of Government geologist, someone sent to Professor Hutton in Christchurch a slab of, stone on which were some strange markings resembling the imprint of a bird's foot of such a size that Professor- Hutton doubted not that it was the imprint of a moa's foot. .He wrote to the Minister or TJnder-SecretaTy for Mines. An assistant was despatched to the locality, but neither at the precise spot nor elsewhere could any rock be discovered other than a metamorphic rock of the Devonian age, and not a trace of other footmarks could be found." I reported accordingly. Some time afterwards I was in. Christchurch, and ■ saw the" -specimen with the suj^ 1 posed moa footprint; It was the same partly deooitiposM-Schistthatmy assistant had so abundantly collected, but, curiously, it was- : crossed by three joints converging on each other, and on© was prolonged to simulate a hind toe. Rapid erosion along these joints had done the rest. If we, can forgive Mr Hutton, we may easily forgive Mr Wragge.