EARLY DAYS IN FRANKLIN

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 524, 20 April 1920, Page 3

EARLY DAYS IN FRANKLIN

(Written Specially for the "Times.'

The dawn of history in New Zealand commences with the arrival of the Maori some six or seven hundred yjjflfltMP' " nd tnat rests on, y on THeTr Vmftitions, though these are no doubt in their main features correct. Exact or documentary history extends back less than a hundred and fifty years, to Cook's time, for we can dismiss Tasman's brief visit as immaterial to the subject. But apart from traditional and documentary evidence there is a vast field of what we may term inferential history—that is of conjecture, which though perhaps not capable of being demonstrated with mathematical exactitude is so nearly certain that it may be accepted by all who do not strain at gnate. It is admitted by most people who have given the matter a thought that it was imposisble for the Maoris to have executed in half a dozen cen-'-turfes. with their primitive methods the great earthworks that are to be witnessed all over New Zealand; to have scarped., out the great terraces that scan th» flanks of the volcanic ccnes about Auckland; to have dug the deep ditches and flung up the high embankments of the pas that crown nearly every hill in the North and the Bay of Plenty, to have cleared and cultivated the large areas

tfftW still show-signs of tillage. Either their traditions and the count of their generations is wrong; but these are too clear-cut for such an Ihypojhesis to be probabje—or ' Zelland was for a very long time prey viojßsly inhabited by a numerous and 'lndustrious, population. We know tha> when our present natives armed they found in possession a presumably £legritto race about whom we have very little information, and it Is proposed to here set down a little of what may be fairly conjectured about their connection with this neighbourhood.

Anyone standing upon the summit of Pukekiihe Hill and looking outward will see a depression elevated very little shove sea-level, at one time called the Awaroa swamp, but now known as the Aks Aka and Otaua Plains. Long ago, probably before the Christian era begun this was a large lake with seve - nl islands, and a deoth, as gained from the debris of the artesian wells which now spout on so freelv over it of eighty to one hundred loot. Hul the ■ Wuikato, with its untidy jhabit of bringing down two or th.ro million tons of solid matter annually found Ih# job of turning ; t into dry land a mere holiday task, and in fin* converted it. first into n morass, and then into solid land on which grew a forest compared to which a modern Now Zealand bush would look liko a shrubbery. Time, nnssed and this primeval forest died out, perhaps from the land sinking and becoming again a shallow lake, but history repeats itself, and presently a second forest not quite as heavy grew over the ruins of the first. *F'his in turn also disappeared, and it became the great swamp wo knew thirty yoarfe ago before drainage turned it into the richest meadows of the North. I am awaVo that many people consider that it was a bay of of the sea and not a lake, but this ran bo shown to be incorrect. On"

has only to examine the pieces of pumice in it to lio certain. A block of pnmice <»o||ed up and down a tidal bench twice a day sonil become? rounded and smooth, and is ere [on? entirely "round away. A journey down the river merely leaves it with its paVes hnl little worn, and this h usually the state of the pujntce found in the Aka Aka. and soeii>£_tQ..c*tnb|i«h the lake versus sea theory. Forest* in New Zealand do net mow with th» rapidity of Jack's cole hrnted beanstalk or .Jonah's poind £ d we can saffly allow a couple of Thousand vears for two of them t" establish themselves and die out. t< sav nothinc or the time renui'ed fr< the Waikato (which had no rive' hoard then, remember, to make it d' exactly whafit was told) to turn i' into land firm enough to carry he ■■■■:<■ timber. So the distance of time hark to when there was an open sheet < r water is very respectable indeed: and when we find that a large nopulatior inhabited its shores ce'tninlv bel'-.i the Romans came to Rritain, an'' ntohablv before the Israelites end their entry into the Pronrsed I.niv 1 we begin to think that N T ew Zed-".' is after all not so ve.y juvenile •■ ( onntry. Mow I'or the evidence concermtv this circumstantial evidence roi.-v Init iniinv a lean has been hawed nn on less com imine' proof. 11 re> t on what thev did and Hie th it ' thev left behind them, and re.»- \ particularly upon the situation iwhich they 10-t some of the things. lil e the Maoris, they I.'• ' not |>a«".ei| out of the Stone Ar>e Indeed it appears quite Itkolv tej' i; ,\ they lived in the I'ideo'i!,! : ~,- rou'-bly chipped 'tune in hioinent, ace. and only late" e- ' e( | the science of pnli-hiim 11 •■' tool-' and ornament . and line h rame entitled to call the dienilicd title n|' NooP'l |,i,s' !■ wood they worked noatk hut pi die withoul any of the int rh ate 1., t stereotyped < ( tvlo of canine '.vhi.-l distinguished 'the art r.f tl e M.■•> -i '' That we hue specimens of the', hnndicrafl in so perish ible a mi ieria! HS wood we mav thank the alc.i ..: Ptein ' p'-e ;enine p<e.ver.s id' p.--! . y\l il,e in. 1 lici'n e\t remit\ of i!>• lake a ii v ''- 1 -' nl\ into v.li'.t ' ,„,,■ , ,!|. I'm mil it is II!' Hl.d ,|, 1,,, :~f ' li:.\ that the eei'lv j, l i:l |,, < 1 . . il* to haVi' ci-ii.ie gated W''i ' ,:|v - At a do/.en !„.,,, | sW*%» -wn the hills, and if ..,,,,,,. ;ire 'inparativelv modern othej.-- :•• ' loubtedly extremely an(j,.ni. [hit I. is the bed of the intake itself thai most plainly t* 11'the tale. When the swamp that o| recent years has filled it was drained the peat rapidly shrank, and revealed around the margin numbers of tht Miiooth beach pebbles that were usee