LAST OF MORIORIS

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 74, 21 March 1933, Page 3

LAST OF MORIORIS

SURVIVOR OF RACE AT THE CHATHAMS Only one Moriori of pure blood survives in the Chatham Islands according to Mr A. W. B. Powell, of the staff of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, who has returned from a visit; of scientific investigation to the island, group. The Moriori is the last of a native race which was the. predecessor of the Maori in New Zealand. There was a fairly numerous Moriori population on the islands when they were discovered in 1791 by Lieutenant Broughton, commander of his Majesty’s brig Chatham. The rapid decline of the race is chiefly due to the invasion of the islands by Maoris from tho mainland in 1835. Epidemics and famine also took their toll and the surviving remnant was gradually absorbed by inter-marriage. The population now numbers about 450, chiefly Maoris. The main object of Mr Powell’s visit was to make a first-hand, study of the shellfish of the islands, that branch of science having been somewhat neglected as far as the Chathams are concerned. As a result, ho has added to the recognised list about twenty species, the majority of which arc new to science. The outstanding find was a large specimen of a new species of gasteropod shellfish of tho genus pachymolon (reports the “ New Zealand. Herald’ ’).

“Pauas arc undoubtedly the most abundant shellfish of the Chathams, and nowhere else have I seen them ini such numbers,’ ’said Mr Powell. “The vast heaps of these shells in Moriori middens show that those people must have esteemed them. They are an excellent food.’’