OLD MAORI SEPULCHRE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2108, 17 June 1907, Page 1

OLD MAORI SEPULCHRE.

j THE CAVES AT MAUNGAIvIEKIE ; AN INTERESTING EXpLORA- ! TION.

I Of tlio thousands who visit One ■Tree Hill Domain and Cornwall Park each year, - probably few know •that underneath the green flats surf rounding tlio old Maori stronghold, • there exist caves of considerable extent, says the Auckland Star. That • suchwas tlio case, has, however, been" ’’known to a few, but so far little lias •been made public regarding them. In ;tlie old days, when Maungakiekie was •the main fortress of tlio great chief "Kiwi Tamaki, it carried a garrison of ’some thousands qf dusify vyarriors, 'which explains the fact that in one ’cave are to bo seen immense deposits ’of human bones, an evidence that 't-liis was the place of sepulchre for, "at all events, the commoner" people. ■Recent road formation works at the

top of the hill disclosed the skeleton of what must have been a chief of (considerable rank. The remains were 'found in a sitting position quite close fto the trig station. It is reasonable •to suppose that this burial dates 'back a very lqng way—before Maungakickie was converted into the main : pa of tile isthmus, because it was not ’the Maori pustom tp inter- their dead W-ithm a fortress, as It rendered the placo tapu. Early in the 18th cen jtury Kiwi Tamaki was in the plenitude of his power, and at that time •the great earthworks hack of course ‘been cppstruptpd. Later on this chief ’made the fatal mistake of transgressing: the law of hospitality by slaughtering 200 of his hosts when attending a taiigi of tlio NgaOiwhatua, and as usual, the error of the ruler brought disaster on his people, for Te iWahoakiiaki, with tlio northern tribes, took a terrible vengeance larter, slaving Kiwi Tamaki at Big Muddy Creek in a big battle, and, inarcliing on to Maungakiekio, ult-i----iuatcly took tlio hitherto impregnable *pa. It- was not until 50 years later when Hong! and his Ngapuhis, armed with modern weapons obtained from the pakeha, swept the isthmus, that 'Maungakiekio was again taken, and Te Tuperiri and his people practically exterminated. Since then the central pa. of "“Tamaki of a hundred ]ovets’-' has not been occupied as a fort.

I This brief history of the - terrible Tights that have taken place around (One Tree Hill vjag necessary as a probable explanation of the mass of decomposed bones to be seen in one of the caves, Owing to the kindness of the chairman of the One-Tree Hill Domain Board, Mr’. C. B.agley, sveeral gentlemen were afforded an opportunity on June 3rd of visiting two of the caves, one of which was a veritable catacomb as far as deposits of human hones, were concerned. Sir John Logan Campbell, whose keen interest in anything connected with Cornwall Park or One'Tree Hill Domain, is well known, drove out, but

tlio descent-, by means of ladders into the caves, was a task not to be thought of by a. gentleman verging oil 90 years of age; consequently‘he was reluctantly compelled to remain on the surface. At ith Sir John were Mr. T. Cheoseman (curator of the v Auckland Museum) and Air. AVynynrd., -The first- cave visited was not lar from the Onchunga boundary- of the Domain, and quite close to the golf links. Hero Air. Begley received the visitors, Air. Stewart (caretaker) having previously placed' several ladders in position, the combined length of which , was <lßft. The entry to the cave is a small circular opening, just large enough to allow of a man’s body passing through, but with, not sufficient space to permit of this being done in comfort, as the visitors bad to wriggle between the ' rocks. Tins lentruhce to the'eavo presents all the appearance of a volcanic j vent, or fumarolo. Onco- through the opening, tlio visitor finds himself in a dome-like;.cave, about. 40ft- by 25ft- with a height, in. the contra of fully 20ft. , In fact the place is realty a cupola .with wonderfully keen sides, and viewed from below' the aperture in the rocks looks ‘just;like a cliim'r ney. „ . This is the first cave, and walking along to one sido,. t-ho visitors found their way by means of another ladder to the cavern below, which is not tso .regular in sliapo jis the upper one, being longer and narrower. Here it is that the deposit of hones exists. The quantity it is impossible to estimate, as rubbish has fallen from the roof in places and covered up the heaps near the entrance ‘ to the lower chamber. Apparently- the process adopted was to lower the hones to the first floor, and then tumble them down to the lower cave, as it can he seen that the whole deposit is pyrainidical in shape, the apex being under t-lie hole by which the visitors descended to the second floor. One thing was quite evident-, namely, that tone upon't-ous of honesmust have been thrown down to consolidate into a heap, at one point, four feet- in depth, of fairly solid decomposed human debris. Amongst these could he seen evidence that the old-timo Alaori had no need for dentists, for the odd teeth found were all in good order. Unfortunately the hones have laid in their present position such a long time that they have, in most cases, softened and settled into a mass presenting tlio appearance, when disturbed, of solid white earth. It would ho interesting to have the overburden of rubbish cleared away, and this heap of bones thoroughly examined, and it is quite possible that some Alaori curios may have been thrown down with some of the dead. On the other hand, this might prove to he merely the place of burial for the remains of slaves, and if such was the case, nothing of interest might bo unearthed. The fact that other caves are known to exist- makes it reasonable to suppose there may yet he hidden caverns used as sepulchres which have not been discovered. After spending considerable time in examining the hones, tlio visitors wont along to the end of the second floor, and there saw a most peculiar formation: The rock presented the appearance of solidified boiling mud. ns if one of the huhling mud pools at AVhakarewarewa had been petrified. In t'lio centre is a circular opening, about two and a-half feet across, and this leads to a third cave of small size, in which, however,' the only hones discovered was the skeleton of an unfortunate rabbit, that- 1 must have dropped through the aperture on the surface, and wandered to the bottom cave in search of means of egress. The floor of this lowest cave is all uneven, and still presents the appearance of petrified mud. Air. Cheoseman expressed the opinion that somewhere lower down there must he a lower vent, whence the lava escaped , and this was really’(jug-tq a subsidence in cqoljiig, ;(s the roof between this cave and the upper one is is not- very thick. Upon returning to tlio surface, the visitors were conducted to a part of Cornwall Park, where, to. the astonishment- of Sir John Campbell, another cave was disclosed after about lialf. a ton of rocks had been removed. “To think,” remarked Sir John, “that in all these years I never heard of the existence of these caves.” This pave was more easy of access, as it was merely a matter of sliding through a small opening down an ' incline into ,tlie cavern, which pioved to he of fair extent, and is no doubt larger, but unfortunately, rubbish lias blocked up one end. The visitors, however, wandered along a gallery of some length, and saw some brown stalactites, ■■ but none of any great length. No bones were found in this cave, and altogether * it, was not of equal interest to the first one visited. Various o.tlier plome-like formations were pointed put in thf> vicinity, where it is bpliuved that other caves exist, hut it- remains for exploration, coupled, with the expenditure of money, to show what is hidden on the slopes of and below the flats surrounding Alaungakiekie