FABLED MONSTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17170, 13 October 1923, Page 2

FABLED MONSTER.

SEARCH FOR REMAINS IN NORTH ISLAND. A LIKELY STORY. (Special to the Star.”) WANGANUI. October 13. For many years past there have been stories of the remains of a prehistoric monster in tho be<i of one of the creeks in the -wild mountainous Moawhango country, inland and east of Taibape. There is a Maori legend that a monster once roamed the upland country of Waioaru Plains and the rugged fastness of the Kaimanawa Ranges, but the Dicynodon. or whatever it was, was regarded as something in the nature of a myth. Now comes the more modern version, and the storv is an interesting one. In ISP2 Mr P.'Bedlington, a well-known surveyor in the earlier days, was cutting up the Awarua block and embedded in th A standstoue formation in the lied of Waiteweta Stream, a tributary of the Ngaruroro River, which flows across to Hawke’s Bay, he ciJsrdovered the fossilised remains of a monster sixty feet in length, and camp stools were cut from-'the vertebrae. This far-t was -mentioned by AJr S. A. Mair. th e well-known engine ex of the Rangitikei County Council. _to a “Star” rcorrespondent. Mr Mai r said that Mr Bedlington’s veracity was beyond question and personally he believed the remains were still there waiting to be rediscovered. i! Seme years ago.” he said. “ T ex plored the river with the "Messrs Batley, of Moawhango. but it was very

difficult country, and the riverbed was full of detritus from the mountains, but I am now arranging for another expedition to thoroughly explore the There the matter rests at present with ample scop e for a local Smithsonian Institute. Should it be that the remains are located, it will prove that in the dim and distant- past something of the T>inosaur or Jguanodon species did roam around in the North Island, and that there is nothing new under the sun even in New Zealand.