EARLY HOROWHENUA

Chronicle (Levin), 7 June 1947, Page 4

EARLY HOROWHENUA

OPIKI EXCAVATION MYSTERY EXPLAINED Some light on the mystery surrounding the excavation at Opiki recently of specimens of Maori tools and . large tree stumps from beneath the peat soil was given by one of the district's earliest settlers,- Mr. D. H. Gardner, of Levin, during an interview this week- The discovery had given rise to the supposition • of the one time existence of a Maori settlement and the presence of a large forest. Recalling the early days, Mr. Gardner explained that there were large numbers of Maoris up the Manawatu River, and heavy bush grew on both sides from the river to the high ground. Floods of ' a nature never experienced in the district now were' frequent then. In one such flood he recalls sailing a boat across fiooded land in a direct line from Shannon to Foxton. Frequent flooding resulted in the raising of the banks with silt and refuse, the water being thrown ' back on the inside. As the river worked out so also did the bush, which was gradually felled and rotted off by the water.' Evidently breaks in the bank occurred and the water drained back into the river, and fresh bush grew on the layer of silt and peat soil. In some $laces, he maintained, there were as many as three layers of stumps. The last big flood, Mr. Gardner recalled, was in 1894, but the conditions. necessary for such floods had not been experienced since. They usually followed a three day easterly from the hills, accompanied by heavy rain and then a sudden change to a westerly. This resulted in an 18-inch rise in the river at Paiaka. In 1842 settlers came upsteam and formed the township of Paiaka. Evidence of this township was still there when he and his family settled in the area. The remains of a church and heaps of leather clippings, probably left by persons repairing. or making saddles and boots, was all that greeted the party on their arrival at Paiaka. The Kebbell brothers established a combined sawmill and flourmill on Howmiaroa (the windy reach) on the other side of the river, nearly opposite Paiaka. They gave the Maoris wheat, which they planted out on the' river bank and on harvesting they took it by canoe to the mills. When the Gardner family arrived there was considerable evidence of cultivation, many fruit trees and fig trees growing on the river banks. Both this fact and the cultivation of wheat by the Maoris for Kebbell's mill would account for the excavation of the Maori spades and other tools, and the opinion vouched recently that certain parts had been cultivated.