PREHISTORIC REMAINS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14151, 10 March 1910, Page 5

PREHISTORIC REMAINS.

[ WHAT A SPECIALIST SAYS. Professor Macmiilan Brown, of Chris tchurch, who has made a special study of such things, says there is no improbability in Mr Wragge's story that he has found some remains of a stone temple in the Far North of Auckland **Huge blocks of %tone, some nearly loft long, evidently hewn by prehistoric man. Some have cups or holes scooped out, on the face of are evidently 'written' records of immense antiquity, and others are marked with long and short strokes, one being an ansated cross." The Auckland "Star" says it is wellknown that there are some traces of a people who lived in New Zealand before the Maoris, and among these "it lias been often asserted," there are, "a collection of fifty great stones set erect in the earth,*' near Atiamuri, and , a miniature Stonehenge with ~ huge blocks, standing six or seven feet above the ground," at Kerikeri, in the "P UIt -Y °f the Bay of Islands. The Star suppose that Mr Wragge has discovered" the latter, which have Been at least mentioned before by such well-known antiquarian authorities on t.ie Maori as .Air Tregear and Professor Alacnullan Brown. ' Professor Macmiilan Brown has made long journeys in search" of such structures, and lias only just returned from a trip to Japan and South America lor that purpose. Professor Brown iMoras t:.e ' Press" that he had heard or a druiuic circle at Kerikeri. and Mr Jregear mentions it in one of his books, Mr Malroh.: of Auckland, dur311g a rei-c'lit neuc-strian trip round the ot Islands, stumbled across this stone circle, which is held sacned bv the Maoris. Mr Wrap's find, at Mangaroa, JS further north. As to the Geologist s statement that the stone are naturally decayed basaltic columns, i roiessor brown sa ys there is a tendency everywhere to say that such stones are natural, but if thev have irT+f* V, crosses >" and "writing" cut tLese must be artificial. Both cup and cross are weather svmbols throughout the Pacific. The most iniftWl m Ir statements is th„ t there is "'writing" on the h °v e ei to le at 1S J? orr . ect ihe y wiH t^.rofK^^^sLd 1451 the famOUS Professor Brown added that he Far" Mr T\V eatl -T in { to see Sow F S photogranhs confirmth» S Sent from Auckland. If wonW "T J ere subs tantiated. they mu"h 0 °;; rcegalitliism had been - , \ more widely spread orpr +i, ft Sd' thZ ran &M^ nwould i- j-? ra S£e s statements of 4. a th s rouKh investigation of the subiect, and that the whole quest,on of megalithic remains in the promontory north of Auckland would be inquired into. No doubt should be left in people's minds as to whether the stones described bv Mr Wrajrp-a ?,ere in their natural state." or whether they jere actually tooled stones. If these stones are artificiallv workth,+ n + l rea! " ed ' Professor Brown that they rorm one of the few exceptions to xhe rule that when the bigstone builders reached a heavih- timbered country they used wood instead ?' SS' v "'° being easier to work in. Ihe one exception previou«lv known was Central 'America where there are remains of great megaliithic rn U li * ™ ldst . of tropical forests. tins point it may be suggested that these cases may not be exceptions. 1 he y may be so ancient that the stones were erected before the country was forested. That would throw the North or Auckland remains a long wav back, ,as generations of kauri forests hare died and left no sign except their buried gum.] The Wellington "Post" says:—Mr. \\ ragge has the glow of discoverer, but the interesting stones were observed long before he came to New Zealand, liiey were mentioned bv the early missionaries and Mr John "White reierred to them in a Jocture delivered ?r "vtl , nc ' * n ISSS. "I am afraic i\lr Wragge is going rather fast," wa' a comment this morning bv Mr H. E Stowell a well-known native interpreter and Maori antiquarian. "I have known about the stones verv well ever since I was a child. They are on high ground, in the onen. on the edge of the primeval forest. I visited the spot a few years ago, and I did not then nonce those marks described by Mr. wragge. There is another group of st-.nes in that locality similar to those which were seen by Mr. Wragge." '