VALUABLE DISCOVERY.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1925, Page 4

VALUABLE DISCOVERY.

OLD-TIME AIAOKI POSSESSIONS FOUND. AUCKLAND, Oet. 18. Searching lor .sheep which had disappeared in thick undergrowth at the loot oi I e \\ ailiereliere elifis, six miles north-east oi' Kennedy Day. Coromandel, Mr S. Al. Hovel], of AVaihi, found the on trill ice of a. volcanic cleft which ■aili-eqlieu t investigation proved to lie a -Maori Lurial cave of considerable antiquity and importance. The discovery was made when .Mr Hovel], who is an authority on Maori relics and folk lore, was holiday-making at the farm of his sister. .Mrs _M. Drlght. at Te Waiherehere.

Accompanied by a -Maori hoy he was mustering a iloek of sheep at the time, and, had one of the animals not made its way into the thick scrub and disappeared suddenly, the cave might, never have, been discovered.

Knowing that oilier important ethnological iimls had been made in the vicinity, Air llovell decided to explore the cleft. The entrance is only about three leet by lour feet. A candle, lowered cm the end of a rope, showed that the cavity was shaped somewhat like an inverted V. and that its depth was ( msiderablo, It, was. nevertheless, possible to make a rough estimate of tlit* distance, and both Air Igtivoll and the .Maori lad climbed down into the cave by means of ropes. It was only when their feet had touched solid rock. and they had lighted their candles again, that the hr." of the cave became apparent. From the entrance bllft above their heads it widened gradually. The ledge on which they found themselves was fully 20ft wide and oOft long. Heaped on every side were hundreds of Maori skeletons, all in an excellent state of preservation. The sight must have been an eerie one. with the candle-light flickering on the grinning skulls of the dead of many general ions of warriors and wahines who. long before' the foot of a white man trod their native land, had ‘'Drunk their cun a round or two before and one by one crept, silently to rest."

Among the remains were many skeletons of young children. possibly the sons and daughters of chiefs. Closer invest igat inn shoved that the cave was of larger extent than .Mr llovell had at lifst thought. The ledge i n wl l ii'li the remains were dis-

c cvered ended abruptly anil a candle i lowered showed that there was another chon of from thirty feet to sixty ITet. Tin- dim light revealed at the but lorn i of this nt h..r heaps of skeletons. Mr llovell decided to explore' Ike , newlv-diseovered port ion of the cave al a'later date. ' A search of the firs) ledge, however. resulted in -everal interesting and itui jo taut' discoveries. ! VrliaUs the most i viable was the mummified luidy of a i Maori woman. Port inns had apparenti !y heen eaten hy rats, hut siuiieieilt evidence remained to prove that the preservation of their dead had heen . cue of the ancient Maoris’ most skilled arts. The little linger of the right leiiul. with tin' linger nail still intact, is in Mr llovell’s nn.-M'ssiou. and clearly - demonstrates the remarkable manner i in which the dead were mummified and preserve'll by the smoking process. The discovery 0 alfthe more important in view of tile fact, that the only ■ other known case of imininiilied remains I cing found was at \\ hangarnu. It is believ'd that the remains inusl he those of a rhieftainess ol considerable importance. Another rare find was a stone ear pendant, an ancient Maori charm. It is carved from granwa.eke stone, and is about two and a half inches long. In shape it is not unlike a fish, Allliciugh greenstone ornaments are more or less common, stone ones are vet;, ra re. t Mr 1 luvell Stales dial, he knows ol no other stone car j.vudniil having heen ; Other relies linniglit to light hy the search were a carved woollen ornamental slab, a ealubadi containing die remains of reel ochre, done axes, a number of shell le 1 1 -1 tc .<)!•: - and three la rite wooden hsli-he-ks. about :tx inches 1 long and three and a half inches across at i.lie Itcml. No greenstone was iouii'l. Fish-hook- are not as rule placed in burial caves. The wooden ones, chilli ate fairly well pl’e-rn ed considering t licit' antiquity, are rare. The ornamental slabs were painted with red e: lire and veto in a go at state ol pi i'-el vat 101 l .Manv of the -kails had line set - oi Iced'.' Due skull, which Mr llovell 1 1 r. light had; to Waibi with him. pesI he it n list;.-: iiy brv iiai in e ol the cave, Mr I love!! believe-, a. con nt - tor t Install.' 11l |)1 Co'l'va I ion of it-: cillo-uts. lie estimates ilia! t lie rave I.a- not heen its<-(l for AM or 109 years, and dial it was the burial-plm o o| a irii;e which died out very long ago. None of tin- oldest Maoris in the district Imd any idea that it existed. ! Mr llovell intends to explore die jeave tliorotigdily at ( Itt i --1 mas. and believes that oilier i n let’e-t ing discoveries j may I,■ made. Ile M.a toil Iha t. in com- J ' patty with others, he had '-eat'eliod the locality from lime to time. It w:t- , peculiar that the discovery .should have heen made in sink an accidental fashion. ; "There arc I races to show that this ■ pari ieiilar locality was at one time the c cut re ef n verv large | iptlln li. - 11 . " Mr Hovel! added. The remains of huge terraced pas were still t i he seen, ami there was evidence that over -1090 acres of land had at one time heen milder eul; i vat ion. Nm tar from the cave was ait artificial lake which had heen used to supply water to the pie*. Around the cave iiselt was a belt ol olid's, from oOft to PbOl't high. fn mil. Mr llovell and another wellknown eolleetor of Maori curios. Mr I!. W. Bell, discovered the lajitutts Te Tekarao cave, three miles away, to the north of Te W.a iheiehriv. Some valuable curios, including the largest greenstone pendant in New Zealand, were found at ihe t inte. The pendant is a.t present in the Auckland Museum. Another important discovery in the localitv was the well-known Tniharuru cave, from which .Messrs Howell and Dell collected S2 Wei I-preset'Veil skulls and forwarded them to I’niiessits l’ickerill ami Dell, of Otago University.