THE MYSTERIOUS SKULL.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1921, Page 9

THE MYSTERIOUS SKULL.

PREHISTORIC RACES IN NEW ZEALAND. SOMETHING FOR ETHNOLOGICAL SCHOOL. Till more light has been thrown on them a good deal of interest must be felt in the “curiously-shaped skull” and bones found, inland from Whakatane, by Dr. Buck, and supposed by him to be remains of a prehistoric race called by the Maoris Fern-eaters. It was wellknown, says the Dunedin Star, that, prior to the advent of the present Maoris, at a time conjectured to have been-about the middle of the-fourteenth century. New Zealand was inhabited by an earlier people, with whom the newcomers inter married, when they did not drive them to the remoter fastnesses or make use of them as an addition to their diet. It is generally supposed, however, that they did not differ much in -origin from the subsequent invaders who dispossessed them of the soil, though the legends of their conquerors, in which they are referred to as the “tangata whenua,” or aborigines, make them appeal* as of milder habits than the ferocious warriors who came in the great canoes. The chances are that they were simply earlier comers of the same race, who may have arrived in this country about the time ‘of the Norman Conquest, and of whom the Morioris, of (ho Chatham Islands, evidently fugitives f rom New Zealand, were the last remnant to survive in an unmixed state. Mr. Percy Smith has written of Natives in the Urewera, who retained appearances of this earlier people, modified by admixture with the later comers. The names of their original clans have been preserved in Maori legend, but our knowledge of them has been almost entirely confined to the vague references of the legends, unless the mysterious rook paintings found in various parts of Nev/ Zealand are to be regarded as their work. It is possible that vestiges of a still more ancient race arc represented by the “curiously-shaped skull” and bones. A skull like a Moriori’s (if that is what has boon found in the North Island) would hot seem a very startling discovery, and “prehistoric” does *not take ns far back necessarily when New Zealand antiquities are concerned. The Maoris have not encouraged scientific investigation of bones and other relics, regarded by them as sacred, which might have strange stories to tell if they were marked and examined by experts. One of the original canoes is supposed to be buried at a site, marked by two white stones, on the 'north coast of Taranaki, but inquisitive pakehas who desired once to excavate the spot were threatened ' with shunting. The etlinological department of Otago University will no doubt desire more knowledge of Dr. Buck's discovery. The importance of the problems yet to be solved,, with the spade’s assistance, in the Pacific can be gathered from some remarks of the late Dr. Hocken, recalled when the lectureship in ethnology was established. Dr. Hocken said: To those whose tastes lie in the direction of, languages and ethnology, I could recommend no more absorbing subject than that connected with the Polynesian race or races, and should say that of the races inhabiting the Pacific region. Problems of the most astounding interest are here every where presented—islands untenanted for ages, where huge monoliths and massive structures tell of a bygone people. who have left no other trace, and whose history is utterly unknown to those who flO years ago came after them. Now. who will link together or show any relation between these long-lost peoples? Is the honor to descend upon the shoulders of anyone is this room? Wore it in my power, I would found a (-hair for the prosecution of studies