THE MYSTIC MAORI PILLARS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 347, 24 March 1910, Page 3

THE MYSTIC MAORI PILLARS

i\ TilK 1 All XOKT'l.' '•A U LOO Ml", Cli J-;i-C V ;'L.UT." Christchurch, March 21. Mr. Frank Drayton, a resident of Linwood, who, years visaed ttie place in tile Bay of Uiaiui \\ lu-ro Mr. Clement Wragge found wli.it ii- beiieves to be the relics of prehistoric man, told a reporter that the place in which the stones lie was called lioney Ouliy. lie could not understand how anyone who saw the pillars which seemed lo have fallen frjin the hillside could come to any other contusion than ( !.>at they were the remair.3 of an aie-ieut building. The stones were of iliil.-rent .-iiaj.e-: -•

some being long rough column-. and some square, and they were oi different lengths. Tlicy were nio-t'.y hidden by ti-tree and overgrowth, as t li- \ rested in a kind of ravine. The light was to a certain extent obscured, ami this gave the place a weird appearance.

''There is no doub,. - ' .Mr. Drayton added, ''that it lias been used as a imtive burial place, as there is plenty of | evidence in the form of bones. 1 did not see any skulls, but probably that was my own fault, as I was n.;i very anxious to linger. The place gave me a creepy feeling. were several long narow boxes re-emblin" collins on a small case, but they wore <|>iilr empty. It has been suegestel. on account of the I rotundity of the columns, that I hey may have been petrified trees. I think not, though it seems wonderful how 11m pillars coutd have been made into that shape. The marking, if any. must be the important evidence to th>' scientist, but I do not .suppose that in that part 1m 1 enough knowledge to understand the imparl info of Mi? si ones. "Anotlu'r interesting thing wlm-h T saw was Hie remains of an old camp, wrli the frame «? the oM slnnties, and two huge iron boib-i>- --el in the rocks, rhrre is a stmi" boi'ding in Ihe ! district 'with barred windows, now a general store, hut once a r fog • for Ihe white people. The first hon«f 'miilt. in , New Zea'and stood in tint pari » f the | country, and an old church, with its walls showing the bullet-hol"? of the Tebel Maoris.