WHO WERE THE EARLY MOA HUNTERS OF N.Z.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 64, 6 November 1931, Page 5

WHO WERE THE EARLY MOA HUNTERS OF N.Z.

OTAGO RESEARCH MANY TRACES OF ANCIENT • CAMPS FOUND IN SOUTH ISLAND. interesting adbress. , "The Material Culture of the Moa Hunters in Murihiku" was the subject of an extremely interesting lecture by Mr. D. Teviotdale, heid under the auspices of the Archaeological branch of the Otago Institute in the Museum last week. Since the earliest discovery of the bones of the moa in the midden heaps of ancient camp and village sites, students both scientifie and amateur have puzzled over the question : "Who were these hunters who exterminated the great wingless birds?" commenced the lecturei*. That they were the first inhabitants of New Zealand was unquestionable. There was too little natural food in New Zealand for the first settlers to neglect such a source ! of supply as the moas. Tho.se who | had dug on old sites were unanimous j that the moa was exterminated a long time ago. The fact that a moa or moas had been eaten in camp, therefore, marked it as an ancient site, Did these ancient sites show evidence of a culture different from the Maori culture with which we were familiar? Was the culture closely similar to that of the Maoris, and to be regarded as the culture , of the Maori ancestors? Or, had there. ever been in New Zealand a race different from the Maoris? were three questions asked by the leeturer, who then proceeded to give a short statement of his discoveries and a eomparison with the discoveries on various moa hunter camps in earlier vears.

Traces of Hunters. Mr. Teviotdale said that he would not attempt to deal with the whole of New Zealand, but only with the country from Banlcs Peninsula to Foveaux Straits. The sites he had worked over were Waitaki River mouth, Shag River, Kaikai's Beach, Harrington Point, Onepoto, Little Papanui, Sandfly Bay, Greenhills, near the Bluff, and Wakatapu, near Orepuke. Of these the Waitaki and Shag River sites were alike in being large moa hunter camps, but conditions differed very much in each of them. The Waitaki site was a hunting camp and nothing more, but the Shag River site was a permanent settlement from the first, and the leeturer proceeded to give the reasons for thinking so. At Onepoto the presence of middens of ribs, vertebrae and pelvic bones — all bones uiisuitahle for manufaeture — • showed that some moas were killed on or near the camp ; and artif acts found associated with-- these bones must have belonged to the hunters. At Little Papanui, so far, he had not attained indisputable evidence that the original camps belonged to the moa hunters; but, still the material justified them in thinking that the first inhabitants were, at any rate, contemporary with them.' Fortunately, he said, a' large portion of this camp had ^oeen untouched by curio diggers. Some of the deposit was from 3ft to 5ft deep, and the material in the lowest layer bore a great resemblance to that found in undoubted moa hunters' camps elsewhere. Maori Traditions. Mr. Teviotdale then presented a short resume of the zoological evidence, and referred to Mr. W. R. B. Oliver's recent book, "Birds of New Zealand," in which he states that 22 distinct species of moa once existed in New Zealand. This was followed by a talk on the evidence of Maori tradition, and the leeturer pointed out that Maori traditions regarding the earliest inhabitants of New Zealand were contradictory.

In dealing with the sites he had investigated, the leeturer said that at the extreme end of the southern branch of Anderson's Bay there was evidence of a small camp. Recently he was permitted by the owners to do some excavating there, and had found undoqbted evidence that moas had been eaten on the site. The greater part of the site had been eovered with spoil from the quarry, he said, but a fair number of interesting relics had been found. Broken adzes, drill points, quartzite flakes, and a bone shank of a composite hook, similar to the ones which were to be found all over New Zealand. This shank was an adaptation of the Polynesian pearl shell and turtle sheel bonito hook, and was recognised as belonging to a very old foi-m of hook not used for many generations. Unfortunately the shank found at Anderson's Bay was broken. He referred to Von Haast recording a moa hunters' camp at the mouth of the Kaikorai Stream. This was the most southern of any recorded moa hunter camp, but he did not doubt many others existed. Recently the Otago Museum obtained a small collection from this site. It also contained nothing but Polynesian types. The First Comers. In concnsion, Mr. Teviotdale drew his listeners' attention to the folloWing statements in Maori tradition: — "(1) That the South Island has been inhabiteld for jabout one thousand years. (2) That the earliest tribes were known as Waitaha, also Rapuwai. They were conquered by the Katimamoe, who, according to Percy Sinith, were descended from the earliest inhabitants of the North Island. (3) That the Chatham Islanders are also said to be descendants from these early people. (4) That some stories point to the Rapuwai being descendants of Toi, the first Polynesian immigrant to this country. (5) That other stories state that the Waitaha came with Tamatea about 1350 A.D. It is possible that this is true, and that they quiekly established their ascendancy over the uncouth Rapuwai, and in amalgamation of the tribes the traditions became mixed. (6) That in spite of the contradictory stories the greater part of tradition agrees on the Polynesian origin of the earliest inhabitants, and when to this is added the overwhelming evidence of the tools and ornaments from the ancient village sites and ihe iotal absence of anything of Melanesian origin there can b.e no doubt at all that the inhabitants of Murihiku have always been racially and culturally Polynesian."