An Unexpected Discovery.

Manawatu Herald, 22 March 1894, Page 2

An Unexpected Discovery.

The bouse Mr Shortt resides in isituated on Main-street and Graystreet, the boundary on the laai named street sloping down to a creek kno \n as the Awaliou, the old name of Fox ton. AH this is necessary to prepare our readers to receive th» shock which Mr Shortt had a few mornings ago in a milder manner. In a fair sized town it is n^c a looked for event for a dog to scratch up a complete skeleton lying within a foot of the surface, but this is just what a few days ago Mr Shortt'a dog did. It h unlikely that any one will be committed for trial, or that the Coroner will even be able to earn a fee, as the general surroundings of the grave print to its having be n an ancK-nc and a Maori one. The grave is a round hole, close to the surface as we have piwi >u<\y mentioned, and points both from itshape and the position the bones were found it, to the deceased aboriginal having been buried in a 9itting po-iiion with knees drawn up and hands stretched over them. Tne bones are surmised to be those of a female. The hole was faced with what appears to be totara bark. The Natives state that the manner of burial and the surroundings of the pit, point to the body having been buried a long time, as it has not been the custom to bury in that position for a hundred years, perhaps more or less, the past always being a hazy period to the present genera tion. Bow the body has lain so long undisturbed, so near as it was to the surface is a wonder, as over twentyfive years ago the land formod a portion of a paddock attached to one of the earlier public houses in the dis trict, and was supposed to have been cleared and cropped at that period. However, the bones are out, if the murder is not. and it would seem fating that pome one "h-Wil p'ac^ th.-m again at rest in one of our cemeteries.