Page 8 Advertisements Column 5

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 37, 20 February 1930, Page 8

MAORI CANOE DISCOVERY ATMOEBA I HOW DID IT GOME THERE! i Somewhere back in. the distant . and ■forgotten paat,^ when Maoris were th« sole inhabitants of this land, somebody in the;Hutt Valley'started to build a canoe. Only recently, when Mr Blake, who resides at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Randwick Road, M-oera, wa» digging in his garden, Ms spade struck the side of the craft. How long it has lain there, who left: it there,- unfinished* to be buried where it was no man knows. The Dominion Museum has been negotiating with regard to the canoe and on Wednesday, when the services of a man from the .Public Works Department had been secured, a start was made upon the business of completely unearthing the treasure. * Thought to be about 60ft long and about 6ft wide at the broadest part, the craft was buriea beneath-about six feet of soil. Early in the proceedings, evidence was forthcoming that it was a, large, and therefore, exceedingly valuable one. Carved out from a totara tree, the i canoe has not been'finished. The knots where the branches of the tree had joined the t;runk may .still be seen to-day. Further, investigations showed the craft to bj..considerably, .so much so, that the Dominion Museum officials de- , cided that the relic would not be worth removing, even if. that should prove practicable and the, trench was accordingly filled in. Once again the canoe lies buried. Hopes that, the canoe which might have been eleven feet longer than the specimen at present, in the Domin- , ion Musum would form a valuable addition to the Maori collection in the National War Memorial Museum have been dashed. ' Several surmises have been maoe as to how the craft came upon the site now known.as a part of Moera. None of the Natives of the Hutt Valley can remember a canoe being" buried, or in any way shed light upon the mystery, A suggestion made before the digging operations of> the past two days had commenced was .that-it liacl been >rbuglit 'down, by the Waikato Maoris.- Someone else has thought that it might have been washed down from the upper reaches of the river. " - MODERN PHYSICAITCULTURB Two demonstrated lectures will b« given by FreidaShaw, Physical Cultutt exponent of Wellington, in St. James h Hall, on' Wednesday, February 26th, af ternoon and.evenmg, those in te'restedJLn health, and physical improve meni should receive some valuable in formation concerning the subject. Then is no "reason .-why the human foodj should not be as beautiful as othe: forms of nature, and in this direction grace plays a very important part, j Every pha£e o_f beauty is connected with buoyant health and the <;eniWJ point of vitality. Vitality and healtH give vivacity and animation w2iich lighj up and beautify the plainest features ■" Modern methods of Physical CulturJ are based on grace and ease of per formance lacing equally applicable t the semi-invalid as/ to the athlete. On Wednesday afternoon and even ing Frieda Shaw who. will be assists *by Marion Tpdd, Barbara Phear an< girls of the Studio, wip demonstrat 'many ditferent braneSxes of the art o physical culture.