BURIED MERES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2135, 1 June 1920, Page 4

BURIED MERES.

A STRANGE RECOVERY. The Levin Chronicle .says that the Kuku Maori community has been stirred by the recovery of two valuable whalebone meres buried for many years. The paper relates that they were discovered by the aid of a Native woman, Mrs Takurangi, wife of the Hon, Te lieu Heu Tukino, M.L.C., who claims to possess powers of divination. The scene was laid off the main Kuku road, and a, few hundred yards' to the rear of Mr Pink’s residence. Leading a, procession of about 120 persons, the chief actor took a course for some distance through the bush and then over some maize cultivations, and again entered a bush pathway, which eventually reached a stagnant, weed-covered watercourse. Here she halted, and plating a stick in the ground at the water’s edge, declared that the lost meres would be found there. A spade was procured, and on digging down a depth of about two feet the meres were unearthed.

Both were in an excellent state of preservation.

Mr Robert Ranslleld, of Manakau, one of the oldest Natives of this coast, recounted some particulars concerning the long-lost pains. He stated that the weapons were owned by Iheir ancestors, Koroniria and Paretiwhana, who buried the mere* lo prevent their being lost, but prior io their deaths did not inform their descendants of, the hiding place. The pains were formerly weapons of war, and being tapn, were greatly treasured. It was believed that the loss of the pains had acted detrimentally to the wellbeing of the later generations of the former chieftain owners, hence the desire to recover them, and break the evil spell.