BURIAL PLACE DISTURBED

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 6

BURIAL PLACE DISTURBED

STRONG PROTEST BY MAORIS TARANAKI EXPEDITION’S ACTION. RETURN OF THE BONES DEMANDED, NAIVE ADVICE GIVEN TO PAKEHAS. By Telegraph.—Pres* Asiociation. Te Kuiti, January 14. Interviewed by a Press representative, leading members of the Maniapoto tribe expressed their strongest protest against the recent action of a Taranaki expedition disturbing the bones of their ancestors at Waikawau. The local chiefs declare that the spot is an ancient urupa, or burial place, named Mangungu. This sacred place in the sand dimes has been the burial ground of the Ngatitoa, Ngatiraria and Ngatimaniapoto tribes during the centuries following the landing on that coast in their canoe, Tainui, from Hawaiki. t '

Maniapoto leaders refute as ridiculous the statement that permission for the removal of the bones was granted by a solitary half-caste representative of the race residing in the vicinity. They also refute the suggestion of a cannibal feast, - as no inter-tribal wars took place in that locality. The evidence of the cooking places, they explain, was for the preparation of their chief food, fish, and the root of the Para fem.

Leading Maniapoto chiefs demand the immediate return of the bones removed, adding naively: “If these- pakehas want human bones, let them go ,a stone’s throw farther up the coast and dig up the graves of those buried close to the sand dunes at Kiritehere, and see what their pakeha people will have to say.” This refers to the graves of those drowned in the wreck of the Kia Ora off Tirau Point in that locality some years back.

It is recalled that |he Maniapoto Maoris have more than once during recent, years forcibly defended ancient burial places in limestone cliffs taken by local bodies for quarry sites under the Public WorksAct. -• . ' -?

Drayloads of skeletons were discovered by a Taranaki party interested in anthropological research which visited Waikauwau early this month. The members of the party were Messrs, F. Gawith (Eltham), A. Bates (Kaponga), A. W. Burrell, L. Davis and G. H. Hunter (Stratford).

Speaking to a News representative after the return of the party, Mr. Gawith said that although nothing of exceptional anthropological interest was discovered, numerous Maori skeletons were encountered. At Waikawwau, which lies 32 miles beyond Awakino, on the coast, the party found much of historical value. In one five-acre corner they counted no. than 25 Maori ovens—some of them still containing charcoal-nand in the immediate vicinity were the skeletons, all laid out in rows with a semblance of order... Obviously the investigators had stumbled on the venue of. some ancient cannibalistic feast which had been staged on a large scale. - A feature of the gruesome discovery was the large proportion of .children’s skeletons. Perhaps the fierce Waikato’s had made a raid on a defenceless pa—the warriors of the tribe being absent on the war path—or possibly the notorious Te Rauparaha had chosen the spot for the celebration of some of his numerous victories, with the consequent wholesale dispatch and consumption of the captives.