AN ANCIENT PATU

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1932, Page 15

AN ANCIENT PATU

MAORI IMPLEMENT FROM TUNA. GIFT TO WELLINGTON MUSEUM. Mr. W. A. Webster, of Tuna, Stratford, recently presented to the 'Dominion Museum a most interesting form of stone-beater or patu. This was a roughly-ground example with a rounded butt end and a rounded body end, the section being nearly circular. As with a similar example recently presented by Mr, L. A. Hooker, from the Wanganui River, Mr. Webster’s specimen shows traces of red ochre still adhering to it. The length of the specimen is a little over Ift., and it has evidently been used vertically as a pestle or kuru for kokowai or red ochre. It may also have been used for beating flax fibre. Little is now known of this interesting group of domestic implements of the Maori (says the Dominion). There are now. in the Dominion Museum something like 66 examples belonging to different groups and sub-groups; Even the correct Maori name to use for different kinds of beater is unknown. ‘’Auforu’’ seems to have been a name given to a pestle used endwise to pound red. ochre, but “kuru” is also a common name for “pestle.” The black stone used for making these implements is called “uru.” “Patu” seems to have been generally applied to implements used to strike downwards and sideways. “Tuki” is another common Term used for a pestle. The remarkable point about these beaters is the fact that most seem to .be found in Taranaki; and with a few exceptions most museum examples come from Taranaki. It would seem that working in stone, in particular in the ; niaiiiifacture of these articles, was a specialty of the Taranaki Maoris. The beaters were used to beat the flax ; fibre (niuka) so tjiat it became soft and silky in appearance, and could then ba made into the finest garments, but the same implement. may also have . been used to crush the berries of bush trees for food or. pound red ochre. This red ochre was mixed with sliark oil and used for paint. Red was a sacred colour, and the Maori large dwellings, canoes, and.sometimes their bodies were painted with it.