GRIM RELIC OF PAST.

Shannon News, 7 April 1926, Page 3

GRIM RELIC OF PAST.

BRONZE RING FOUND ON NATIVE WOMAN’S FINGER. WHAT IS ITS HISTORY? I Whilst on a visit to Gough’s Bay j (Akaroa) recently, Mr. G. J. Black, I of Gisborne, was handed an interest. ■ mg relic of the past. | it appears that some boys had I found a skeleton which, on further I examination, proved to be that, of a [ voung Native Woman. On a finger i is a bronze or brass ring, soldered to which is a pla|te with a figure of an aged bald-headed, be-whiskered man, with a turned up cloak collar, not unlike the mode affected in the Elizabethan days. On one side of the profile are the capital letters 5.F.., ond on the other D.S. r rhyp ring is of crude workmanship, and its small dimensions indicate ithat it could have been worn only by a girl or young woman with a slender finger. How great a period has passed since the burial took place is not ascertainable. The ring is black with age and exposure ,and it is ✓known that there has been no Maori settlement in th e immediate locality for the past century, but it was once the site of a very large pah. Some people to whom Mr. Black has shown the curio are of opinion that it might possibly be a religious relic. Others again, reckon it may have been a form of trading present used for,- the purpose of bartering by the early whalers. The fanciful viewpoint has even been put forward that it may: have been carried by a sailor on a foreign vessel which visited Akaroa in the dim past before Cook made his initial voyage of discovery to New Zealand.

On his return journey, Mr Black showed the ring jto Mr. Elsdeu Best and to Mr.. Johannes Anderson, but neither of these experts in Maori his. tory was able to throw any light on its identity.