by a deep ditch—the baseline was cut by another line at right angles. On these two lines a grid consisting of 5ft. 6in. squares (one-twelfth of a chain) was built, each square bearing its own letter and number. Thus excavation could proceed according to plan and thus any find could be easily mapped on a master plan. About 50 people—Maori and pakeha—took part that first day, including a number of children. The first trench was opened by the Canterbury party, many of whom were veterans of other archaeological expeditions. Others soon learned the basic technique and work got under way in three separate trenches. The pattern which quickly developed under Dr Duff's quiet but efficient direction was for the sods to be cut by adults and piled in heaps by children. Then the top soil was carefully dug until the spongy peat was encountered when care dictated whether spades or trowels should be used. There was a picnic air about the whole procedure from the first day to the last. Each trench was placed in the charge of an experienced worker and the work went merrily along notwithstanding the hot weather which prevailed most of the time. Each morning water seeped into the trenches and had to be bailed out. A pump operated by a motor was also used. The first find was made on January 21 in No. 1 trench where a number of young people, pakeha and Maori, were working under the direction of Miss K. Fletcher, of Christchurch. The discovery was a ko, a digging implement complete with its teka or footrest. A remarkable feature was that the lashing of split vine which bound the teka to the ko was still in position although very brittle. The careful excavation showed that the ko had not been placed there haphazardly but had been put carefully upon short pieces of stick and covered with fern. Stones had been used to hold the fern packing in position. The ko was excavated with extreme care, packed in moss and damp peat in a specially made box and placed in a cool store where it will be allowed to dry out very gradually. This find set the pattern for the whole dig. In all 20 ko and 12 tekas were found. In the words of an editorial in a local newspaper it was “… almost as if the party had taken the roof off a Polynesian tool shed.” It was a remarkable achievement, unprecedented in New Zealand archaeology, as was the further discovery of evidence of wood-working. Day after day the searchers found at the bottom of the peat, where stones and sand showed the position of an ancient stream bed, piles of adze-cut totara chips, some charred by fire and many bearing the clear marks of the stone adzes. There were thousands of these chips of all sizes and bushels of them are now in the basement of the Taranaki Museum. To complete the picture of wood-working, two totara logs were found bearing evidence of having been worked right there in the swamp. In one case the workers found bundles of sticks in the mud near one of these logs leading to the conclusion that they were placed there to form a path. It looked as if the Maori carvers may have searched for swamp timber and carried out their work on the spot. Then, perhaps, the carvings were placed in the swamp to season. In addition a food bowl of the kumete type was found and also a fern root pounder, both in wood and in reasonable condition. These material accomplishments of the search Shaun Ainsworth, son of Mr and Mrs F. H. Ainsworth, Richmond Street, Waitara is shown here with the carving he found in the swamp on Good Friday, 1959. This picture is a reconstruction of the discovery. The carving, a lintel or pare which of old adorned the doorway of a superior house, was briefly placed back on the bearer which had supported it in the peat for a century or more. Shaun, who was nearly 14 when he found the pare, is kneeling in the ditch he was walking along when he saw a piece of the carving protruding from the side. (TARANAKI DAILY NEWS PHOTOGRAPH).