34 FOOT TOTARE CANOE

Hokitika Guardian, 20 March 1931, Page 5

34 FOOT TOTARE CANOE

TARANAKI BUSH DISCOVERY TWO OTHERS IN MAKING, NEW PLYMOUTH. March 17 Mr K. Anderson, of Aotuhia, situated 55 miles east of Stratford, while searching in the hush for totarn timber for fencing posts, discovered three examples of primitive Maori workmanship in the foi m of canoes. One was completed and two others were in the course of construction. The completed canoe is still in gootl heart. It is 31 feet long, about 3 leet in beam ail'd about 3 feet 'from koej to gunwale. Ii was situated in what was many years ago a clearing made b.v tile .Maoris, who iiilubitated til,, vicinity within remote hut living memory. The canoe was made from a huge to.’ara. Its interior was overgrown and filled witli moss. The clearing was overgrown with undergrowth as well as bigger totara and other trees that would have taken from forty to fifty years to reach their present size.

Two other totara trunks nearby were half hollowed out, but in tiiese cases rot hath) set in and undergrowth had even penetrated the sides of the embryo canoes. One of them had been burned badly by bush fires. Tho most interesting discovery however, was it totara bowl lying Upon several blocks, evidently placed there by the Maori workmen in order to keep tlie canoe from th e ground, allow it to dry and to provide rests while the process of hollowing and shaping flip canoe was proceeded with.

From that totara bowl. felled by some of the last of Maoridom’s canoemakers. Mr Anderson will split timber for fencing posts to subdivide the section upon which lie and Ins companions ai'c engaged in late pioneering work.