OTAGO INSTITUTE

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 10

OTAGO INSTITUTE

ADDRESS BY MR 11. D. SKINNER. An interesting address was given by Mr H. D. Skinner, lecturer on ethnology at the Otago University, before a large attendance at the meeting of the Otago Institute on Tuesday evening, the speaker taking as his subject “ An Archaeologist in Tahiti.” Mr. Skinner said that the Society Islands were of special interest to New Zealanders because they, were the final Hawaiki of the Maoris, the last stopping place in the journey that ended in New Zealand. The traditional evidence on which this conclusion wa 6 based was brought together by the late Percy Smith, and subsequent i esearch in fields other than traditional had ail supported the view. The . two island’, of the group ’which were particularly stressed in {Maori tradition were Tahiti —called by- the Maoris Tawhiti—and Rai’atea—called Rangiatea. The speaker was for two months a member of the Bishop Museum expedition working in Eastern Polynesia with headquarters at Papeete. His particular research was on the classification of the ground stone cutting tools of Polynesia, _ but he had had an opportunity of studying whatever material turned up. Mr Kenneth Emory, leader of the expedition, generously acted as guide to a large number of marae, or tribal temples or shrines. In their simplest form each of these consisted of a paved court, with low. dry masonry walls. Across the back of the court was a terrace, along which pillars of stone or wood were set up, each marking the appropriate place for the figure of a god. In «fact, figures of gods or deified ancestors sometimes took the place of pillars. Such was the case in Easter Island, where the statues overshadowed all other features of the shrine. In Tahiti the statues were never of great size, and they rarely showed the least sign of ar’is-tic merit. Other features of the marae were developed and, in many cases the structure became very complicated Work was restricted to Tahiti, Moorea, and Mehetia, and a series of slides was shown illustrating these islands, and the island of Rarotonga in the Cook group. In conclusion the lecturer spoke of his own work in classifying the adzes of Polynesia. Of all the groups, New Zealand showed the greatest variety. Next in number of types came Tahiti, and every one of the really basic New Zealand types could be found there. The similarity was in some cases so close as to amount to identity. These similarities, or identities, were seen at their best in the oldest surroundings in New Zealand—in the moa-hunters’ camps and among the Morioiis of the Chatham Islands. These peoples were Tahitian in race and iu culture. The theory of a pre-Maori race with mn-Polynesian culture was in flat contradiction to easily ascertainable facts.