CENTURY-OLD WAR CANOE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2858, 14 March 1925, Page 2

CENTURY-OLD WAR CANOE

I’NGOVERED FROM THE SAND AT HOICK). A RELIC OF TF RAI'PARAIIA'S DAY. Whilst practically every person who has visited tlie Hokio Beaeli lias seen the wreak of the Hyderabad, which is such a landmark on the wide expanse of coast-line, and has with a common sentiment felt a harkening hack to that day in June 1878, when the once stately barque came ashore before a howling “westerly,” few people know of an even older and more interesting relic which lies only a few hundred yards away, says the Chronicle, This is the remains of an old Maori war-canoe, which the drifting of a sand hill is gradually uncovering. No wreck this, however, but a complete totara canoe, four teot wide in the beam, and forty-live feet in length, as it shows out from the sand kill, which still covers a portion of it, estimated from the curve of the gunwales to he five or six feet. When a “Chronicle” representative recently visited the place where the old canoe rests, he was astonished to find how complete the remains were. The wood has perished on the exposed side, where after long burial, exposure to the air has caused it to crumble, until some of the hoards are only half an inch thick instead of two or three inches as originally. Part of one side has also broken down, hut everything else is as il was left —one can onlv guess how ong ago.

Along the length of the gunwales the oval holes arc still to he seen, where the lop sides of the sea going canoe were lashed, .and those topsides, ten inches in height, with the corresponding holes drilled through their edges, are lying alongside*. At the stern may he seen the moriicing where the carved sternpost, which was such a characteristic por lion of the old war canoe, was titled. A similar morticing for a how post probably exists at the how which is a! pre.-aml covered with sand. Seals for the pnddlers, with lodes drilled at each end for lashing to the sides of the canoe, and i ouiilersiink grooves from this hole >o that the lashings would lit flush with the seal, are still in a good state of preservation, but probably (lie mo-1 interesting portion of the canoe is a board four feel in length In a foot in width and three inches thick, with it six inch hole through the middle which would appear to have been built lo step a mast. It i> well known that Hie early Maori voyagers from Hawaiki used sails, on their double canoes, lmt the use of sails would appear to have gone out with the double canoe, which was no doubt found unsuitable for our rough waters. One of the early missionaries does indeed mention having seen canoes sailing down the coast from Wanganui in the early pari of last century, hut they must have been very uncommon since records of their having been seen are so scarce.

Tin* llokio canoe was evidently carefully placed in its present position. It rests on once solid blocks of lotarn. each about.a foot square and el ihe stern is chocked with wedge-shaped blocks to keep the vessel on an even keel. According to Mr Hugh .McDonnell the canoe was Mrs! noticed nearly thirty years ago, when only a couple of feet showed out from a high hill which was just beginning to break. No record exists among the local Maoris as (o how it came there, but, like the stone found by Mr Pickwick, "all are agreed that it must be of great antiquity."

The most reasonable explanation is that it was buried there by the Mu.'iupokos at the time of To Ixuuparahn's invasion of this coast in the twenties of last century. When the old Ngali Ton conquistador defeated the local Maoris in a number of engagements in this vicinity, it is a well-authenticated fact that they buried and sunk a number of their war canoes to prevent them falling into Te Kauparuha s hands. One such is known to have been sunk in Lake Kukauhamama whilst another canoe was recently discovered near the Waiurri creek. A little imagination can conjure up (he scene which the burial of the old relic al llokio a century ago must have presented. The grav line of the sand hills and drawn up on the beach the splendid 50ft. warcanoe, already of a reverential antiquity—one of the dearest possessions of (he tribe, painted with red ochre and pigeon fat, and ornamented with carving and snowy bunches of albatross feathers and dogshair. Such a prize must not fall into the hands of the enemy. The. small but determined baud present have sworn to that. Kellers are cut and with infinite labour the canoe

is rolled the hundred yards inland from the sen shore to its present location. A sentry probably watches from a nearby hill while lhe work is in progress, for at any moment the dreaded To Rangihaeatu (Te Tlnuparaha’s fighting general) may

dash down upon them and the dreaded “rakan-pakeha” (musket) roar its death warning. Probably a trench was dug in the sleep side of a sand hill and the <OlllOO, after being snugged down l»v removing the stern and. bow posts) and chocking her up, was covered by breaking tin* sand of the hill-side down over.her.

One can conceive also that in subsequent massacres, the whole of this parly fell —as Te Rauparaho, in bis own expressive phrase, “clean'd the weeds from bis clllti\atinn" —on the island fortresses of Lake TTorowbenua, in surprise attacks on tin* clearings in the bush where the routed Muaitpokos lurked —until no record remained of its hiding. Now time reveals their secret and hints at their tragedy.