OLD NEW ZEALAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9193, 24 March 1908, Page 3

OLD NEW ZEALAND.

DR HOCKEN'S RESEARCHES. [F_OM 0-R Oo_„_SFON_>_NT.J DUNEDIN, March 24. Dr Hocken says that his search at Kerikeri for archaeological remains said. to exist there was resultless. The only things he did see were remarkable outcrops of basaltic rock on a precipitous hillside, which have been very strangely weather-worn, and he could quite conceive that a person passing at a distance might - have been struck by the peculiarity of them. At the same time they are not Druidical remains. While in the north of Auckland, Dr Hocken put into order for publication the journals of Mr Webster, a resident of Opinini, these beginning with, an Australian overland journey in 1838. He also examined and put into order a collection of the letters and papers of the late Rev John Hohbs, Dr Purchas, and other old missionaries in the Kaipara district. Dr Hocken went over the ground, traversed by the Rev Samuel Marsden in 1814, and came to the conclusion that he, and not D'Urville, as is generally understood, was the real pioneer and discoverer of the site of the present City of Auckland. The sole remnant of the old mission people he met with was Mr James Kemp, at Kerikeri, who lives in what is probably the oldest house in New Zealand, having been erected in 1820 by the Rev John Butler.