THE TATTOOED ROCKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 322, 21 December 1910, Page 6

THE TATTOOED ROCKS.

Mr Clement Wragge paid a visit last wetk to what are known as the "tattooed rocks," on the coast near Raglan, and as a result he. is distinctly of opinion that they are the work of neither Tamil nor Maori, but are the inscriptions of a very ancient race of sun-worship people, antedating the advent of the Maori by untold centuries. The spiral circle, ovals, crosses, and squares, he says, are most significant, and confirm his opinion that New Zealand lias been inhabited by early man. He considers the inscriptions are probably connected with those at Easter Island and Central and South America, and are Atlantean cr Lemurian in origin; further, that the Maori people copied the spiral from the relics of those ancient people, and did not initiate it. Engagements elsewhere prevented Mr Wragge from remaining, but he intends returning to investigate further. He secured photographs of the carvings.

Mr Wragge writes to an exchange: —"I cannot understand why these wonderful carvings at Raglan, potent with mystic and religious meaning, have been so neglected. Actually satre vandal has chipped off a huge piece from one stone, mutilating the inscriptions, which includes spherical, triangles, ovcids, circles.squares, crosses and spiras, but the main ones I am glad to say are still intact. If the Government cannot take steps for their protection the stones shouid be shipped to the British Museum, and piaced by the side of the Easter Island relics. The Tourist Bureau should organise educational trips to Raglan, and a curator of the stones should be appointed. Local residents have every reason to be proud of their neighbourhood, and should assist in affording protection. Evidences of pre-historic man in New Zealanj are steadily accumulating.