A PREHISTORIC RACE

Hokitika Guardian, 7 September 1926, Page 4

A PREHISTORIC RACE

IXT Eli ESTIXG i'’.V IHENCE. IiIVEXHEIAI. September 3. Further evidence of tlit* existence in -New Zealand hefore the arrival of the .M aoi'is of a race of people of whom practically all record has been lost has been discovered in Queen Charlotte Sound by Mr \Y. .J. Elvy, of the Survey Department, win, is conducting researches on behalf of the Polynesian Society. Yesterday .Ah’ Elvy discovered in the vicinity of Rahonui. Monkey Ray. a number of pit dwellings, similar to those already found in a, other portions of the Sounds. The pits are situated on a steep spur, about one hundred feet above high water mark, and nine paltforms or excavations are plainly visible, being quite evidently the remains of a village once inhabited by the first Judders of New Zealand, whom tradition associates with the Morion's, the remnants of which race fled to the Chatham. Islands to escape persecution and enslavement at tiie hands of the alkeonquering Maoris.

In spite of the late Mr .T. Rutland’s contention that the Marlborough Sounds were originally occupied by a nice of pit-dwellers, n large section of scientific opinion has tended to the belief that the pits found from time to time are not the remains of habitations, but of earthworks used hv the -Maoris for defensive purposes and for the storage of Itumcras. Air Elvy. however, claims that his researches definitely establish that the pits are the remains of dwellings. He discovered yesterday the remains of ancient feasts in the shape of pipi shells strewn between the sites of the various dwellings of the one-time aboriginal village.

Afr Elvy also points out that a very large mini her of pits have now been discovered in various parts of the Sounds, hut the amount of flat land on which the kumera (a tropical or subtropical vegetable) could have been grown is extremely limited, this demonstrating that the number of pits was far ill excess of storage requirements for any possible harvest of the vegetable. The pipi shells, he considers, afford ample proof that the pits are the remains of dwellings.