INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1921, Page 11

INTERESTING DISCOVERY.

EARLY LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. A most interesting series of discoveries has been made by a settler in the Motuhora. district, revealing apparent signs of ancient habitation which are worthy of the attention of persons versed in the archaeology of this Dominion (says the Poverty Bay Herald.) The settler, Mr. F. W. Peddle, proceeded on Bth October last to effect a clearing of the forest on a site which he had selected for the erection of a dwelling, not far from the Motuhora railway station. A short time after he cut over a grave in this clearing, its dimensions being 14ft to 15ft in length, 4ft to sft high, and 3ft wide. Later, on further clearing the ground, he came across two Maori Kapas, or stene ovens, and a stone for sharpening axes wnich was buried a foot in the ground. Further on in the clearing he came across twenty or thirty of the Maori kapas, including a large one twelve or fifteen feet across, the burnt appearance of the stones indicating their use. On removing the stump of a hinau tree 2ft in diameter, he found 4ft deep in the ground another Maori kapa, the tree having grown right over the top of it. Later op, he removed a large rimu stump sft ".n diameter and beneath that also there were the same indications of Maori ovens. In one place a kafiwhaka tree had grown and rotted and a rimu had sprung from, the top of it and here also, under mounds of earth, were found further kapas. The indications reveal extensive settlement in a by-gone age, but what is puzzling Mr. Peddle is how the discovery can be made to tally with the records which we have of the Maori migration. There is undoubted evidence, which he will be pleased to show anyone interested, that huge trees have grown over the ovens—trees which cannot be much less than a thousand years old. At what period did people live ithere, and who were they ? Investigation by someone who has special knowledge is highly desirable in the interests of scientific research.