GRUESOME FIND.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2789, 12 May 1911, Page 3

GRUESOME FIND.

WHAT A CENSUS COLLEC-

TOR DISCOVERED

The VVairoa correspondent ot the Napier Daily Telegraph supplies the foliow.ng information! which has reached Inn lrom a remote part of the Mohaka riding of the Wairoa County. There is not much " census humour,"

whatever that may exactly

mean, in

this incident

A census collector, when engaged

" numbering the people " at Runanga, in Hillier's Valley, somewheie on the Napier-Taupo Road, stumbled into a large hole out of which a tree was growing. Like Moses, of old, who turned

aside to examine the burning bush, the census collector began to search, and this is what he found in a hole about

eight or nine feet square. A. tin trunk ot ihe bid fashioned square type. The trunk, the bottom of which was rusted-

away, was painted yellow, and near it layibe remains of two striped blankets, wiih fringes, also what looked like TWO WOMEN'S BLOUSES, one red, and the other a deep blue. There was also found a calico tent, so folded up that some ot the overlaps were in a iairly good state of preservation, whilst, appropriately enough, near by, were some matai ient pegs. The remains of the leather handles ot a port manteau, and the iron binding with the

lock attached were disclosed, also a piece of board with handles on it, and " dished " on one ot its sides, making it somewhat like what. Maoris once used for kneading dough upon.

So far ihe relics appeared merely to suggest ihe cache of some inland

buccaneer, but a new aspect was opened up by the discovery of a pair of baby's leather boots very well preserved.

Ne::t came to light

A PAIR OF SKELETONS,

evidently those of a young man and a young woman ; then two skeletons of youncjer people, and another of a baby —probably at one time the owner of the boots. Still more skeletons \ This

time two of older people, apparently a man and woman —seven skeletons in all, in a fairly good state of preseivation, but the baby's skull split in halt at the upper cranium suture on being touched. Some of these bones were sticking out of the earth, and spme covered nearly a foot deep with earth which had fallen u'om the sides of the pit. The remains were surmised to be those of a whole lamily, though there may be others beneath, for the investigator was only armed with a tent peg for exploration purposes. It is significant that all the skulls were at one end of ihe hole, which was not Unlike many similar ones to be found all over that district. Some of the bones were white, and others fuicher in the earth were brown, as if coaied with some mixture that gave them fhat colour. I have said that the remains seemed to be those of A WHOLE FAMILY, whether European or Maori I could not ascertain, but no Maori weapons, mats or utensils were seen. It is conjectured that this may have been a family that hid in the hole for safety at the time of the Mohaka massacre, but as this event occurred as far back as 1869, the articles appeared too well preserved tor such a long period. Several Tarawera people who were spoken to regarding the gruesome " find" did not seem to have j heard about it before, but the Tarawera schoolmaster or postmaster —I forget j which—admitted that two or three years ago some telegraph linesmen working near the spot made the same discovery, but did not report the matter, tearing that these remains might be those of Maoris and that THE LAW OF TAPU might be put in operation against them. The modern articles suggest a tragedy, or a party that perished irom privations, but the deeper buried bones suggest that the hole was one of the sacred burying places of the Maoris. At any rate the discovery suggests inquiry.