THE ROCK CARVINGS
VIEW OF AIR KBS DON BEST. WELLINGTON. Oct. l.j
Excellent photographs ol the carvings of eighteen canoes on the rook at Kaingaroa have been obtained by the Dominion Museum authorities, ami have been submitted to Air Elsdon Best, the well-known investigator of .Maori life and tradition. Air Best itiot disposed to regard the find as one likely to provide any fresh knowledge of tile race, hut it has its interesting foal pres, which lie has noted in a memorandum to the director of the Dominion Museum, lie states: “The sweeping curves of the stern projections of some ol the canoes remind one of tiie illustrations of Tahitian canoes in “Cook’s Voyages.” Others resemble Wonderfully the tlira jm of the Afaori canoe, i.e.. waka tana. The so-called stage relerred to in newspaper articles may represent a form of tanihu or prow attachment, generallv ierrnod figurehead.
“The horizontal project ion at the prmv is shown level or Hush with the keel in some eases. A similar projection on certain classes of Tahitian canoe is well above water.
“The lands surrounding this pan. of Kaingaroa have been held by the Xgah Alnnawa tribe for the 7111st eleven or twelve generations. Prior to that time I hey were held by To Al ara nga ra nga. with Tc-Tini-o-Tuoi to the north ol them. The .Vgati llotii never held in amt over these lands. Xgali Alnnawa wei'e living at Alotuwako. north of the carved face, as late as 1 Still. “The absence of tradition about these carving- goes for nothing. They are mit the sort of things that would he so mentioned, unless some special act of some ancestor was connected with them. It was mil wise to assume that they represent anything more than a diver-ion of persons occupying the rock shelter. Shelters were u-ed great I v in former times lie travellers and food seekers."
The Slate Forest. Department hafenced the reek face to prevent interfere lice by vandals, and it is only possible to closely inspect these interest carvings by first obtaining Hit; permission of the Dominion Museum author
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19251017.2.3
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1925, Page 1
Word count
Tapeke kupu
350THE ROCK CARVINGS Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1925, Page 1
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in