Dr Roger Duff (left) and the Rev. Manga Cameron examine a carving found in the swamp some years ago. Dr Duff, who is curator of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, directed the search at Waitara in January and February on behalf of the Taranaki Museum. Mr Cameron, who is an Anglican Maori missioner at Waitara, conducted a unique service at Manukorihi Pa before the search began to remove any suggestion of tapu which might be thought to linger over the works of art laid in the swamp by stone-age carvers. (TARANAKI DAILY NEWS PHOTOGRAPH). there with a view to their recovery at some future time?” Dr Duff gave the assurance. Not only was there no opposition but many Maoris joined in the search day after day for over a month. After the first meetings, but some time before the search began, interest was fanned to fever heat by the discovery right in the selected area of a magnificent pare, perhaps the finest of all the carvings ever recovered from Taranaki swamps. It was found completely by accident on Good Friday, 1959, by a 12-year-old Waitara schoolboy, Shaun Ainsworth. Shaun had slid into a ditch to release a frog from the school aquarium when he saw part of the carving projecting from the bank. Before the search began a church service was conducted within the carved walls of Te Ika-roa-a-Maui, Ati-awa's fine meeting house set among the green lawns of Manukorihi pa. The lesson recalled how God had called Bezaleed, son of Uri, and had filled him with the Spirit of God “in wisdom, understanding and knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” even “… in carving wood, to make any manner of cunning work.” The Rev. Manga Cameron, Church of England Maori missioner at Waitara, said that while the searchers were paying a tribute to the ancient craftsmen they were also paying tribute to God who inspired artist and artisan alike. Elders had told him that if they had had to undertake a similar project their approach would have been to refer to those who had passed beyond the veil and to say to them “Peace be unto you”, asking also that the searchers be not hindered or harmed. Today the prayer was the same—a request that the project prosper—directed not to the ancient craftsmen but to their Maker. The gathering of several hundred people, both pakeha and Maori, joined in the service and later greeted Dr Duff and members of his party. These included a member of the Canterbury Museum staff, Mr R. Scarlett, and members of the Canterbury Museum's Archaeological Club. Interested people from as far north as Whangarei were also present, as were representatives of the many organisations which assisted in the organisation of the search, notably the Taranaki Museum Committee and the Waitara Borough Council. That was Sunday, January 17. On Monday morning the first sods were turned in a swampy hollow on the farm of Mr F. Olsson, Richmond Street, just on the outskirts of the eastern part of Waitara. This area had been chosen because although little more than two acres in extent, it had in the past yielded three pataka panels and one pare. It was one of four areas which had been surveyed for the search in the previous months. As it happened the search for the next four and a half weeks was entirely concentrated here and the three other areas have yet to be explored. Acting under Dr Duff's instructions, the surveyors, Messrs A. D. McLennan and T. E. A. Astwood, had laid out a baseline of three chains on the bank of one arm of the swamp. Where this arm met the main flow of the swamp—indicated