SUBMERGED FOREST

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 276, 11 February 1928, Page 11

SUBMERGED FOREST

TREES cut by unknown RACE

THEORY discounted

the trees of the submerged at Arapuni cut by some instrument to people who lived in New long before the advent of the Xaori? That is a question asked by a man ho has worked at Arapuni for the four years. He is of opinion that the trees have been felled by a blunt instrument like mts who offers this suggestion ‘ worked at large engineering enterriees In many parts of the world, and iihough he is not a geological expert he has studied that science as an amateThe theory is discounted by Professor J- A. Bartrum, Professor of ivo'ogy at the Auckland University, Irtio’ has paid a fleeting visit to Ara?U He said this morning that the minimum age of the trees would be be- • *een 1,000 and 4,000 years. He would be very surprised it their age were less LISD this. ‘ trees, he thought, had been burled by a slow process of silting, when the trees had been silted to a depth at which they now stand, through being exposed by the diverted waters of the Waikato River, the upper portions of the trunks may have rotted off The lower portions had been preserved in the silt, as air could not reach them. This would explain why the trees look as though they had been cut it an even height. professor Bartrum thinks that it is ouite unlikely that there was anyone m jfew Zealand before the Maoris and the Moriori. If the Dominion had been nhsblted by an unknown race it would have left some deposits of instruments which would have given scientists or geologists a clue to its identity. No euch evidence of a previous race has been discovered. The theory that the trees were cut by rough instruments leads to romantic conjecture, which might alter the whole stste of the recognised early history of New Zealand. Since the trees have been exposed in ithe oi&.valley of the Waikato the submerged fferest has been inspected by thousands of sightseers, all of whom are thefriown theories about its age.