INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4314, 18 January 1875, Page 3

INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

Mr. Thomas Daniel, M.P.C., furnishes to the Southland News the interesting account, of a discovery of Maori tools and weapons :—About three years ago the_ Maoris here, under Pitau, oue of their old chiefs and warriors, were digging a very large matai or black pine stump out of his garden. It was about 3ft. through, and when alive would be about 50ft. in the stem, and say 200 years old. When they got the stump out, in working at the tap root, they turned up a lot of charcoal, and with it some old stone axes. This led to a further search, which resulted in the unearthing of thirty-two finished stone implements of all kinds, and about fifty others in a rough state, some- half-finished and others nearly so, together with.several stone hammers used in their manufacture. There were' several small stone chisels, and a sort of gimlet or drill about a foot long, and the thickness of a finger—used with a how for boring, and also several pieces of flint (jasper). I asked Pitau and some of the oldest Maoris how they supposed the weapons, &c., came where they were found. Their idea was that they had belonged to a mechanic or axemaker, and—in expectation of a raid, of which the natives lived in constant dread— they were planted in a hole in the ground ; that a fire was lighted over them for their better concealment ; and that, the owner having been killed, they remained until found as stated, the tree having g - own over them in the meantime. Pitau, who is a big powerful man, over 6ft. high, states that some of the tools—an adze in particular, were 25in. in length and thick in proportion—are much heavier than the Maoris now living could use. Ho thinks “there were giants in those days ” —an expression probably derived from the Biblical teaching of the Native minister —Solomon. Pitau dismissed the theory that the implements had been placed under the tree while growing, with the remark “ Did you not see the hole must have, been a large one, with the tree in the centre and the roots,spreading all over?” I therefore conceive that these implements are the oldest on record as having been found in New Zealand. Pitau said -the race that used them had not then met with the greenstone—that it was discovered by the present rice, who found it easier to fashion and better to keep its edge when sharpened than the stone previously used, I have some of the stone adzes (handled) by me yet. (I may mention that I got handles made for about twenty by an old Maori.) Of these I intend to give four to the Otago Museum, and two, with one of the hammers, to your Invercargill institution, placing them in the meantime in the keeping of Mr. McKenzie at his private museum. This will complete the distribution of the collection, as I some-time .ago gave Captain Chapman, of the Dido steam frigate, half-a-dozen of the largest adzes (handled), the drill or gimblet, and a most beautiful transparent greenstone adze, receiving from him a promise to place some of them in the British Museum. Some' again I gave to Mr. Macandrew, who came with him, and to other gentlemen. This account of the manner in which the implements were found has not been published thus far, and may interest those of your readers who have given any consideration to the question of the antiquity of the Maori race.