PRE-MAORI CIVILISATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 April 1921, Page 11

PRE-MAORI CIVILISATION.

MILES OF FORMED DRAINS. FINDS IN THE AWANUI SWAMP. (By F.W.W. in Auckland Herald.) Evidence is accumulating that long before the advent of the Maori from Hawaiki, there was a civilisation in New Zealand far in advance of anything that he found in the land. We know that the Maori found a race somewhat qkin to his own in possession, and that he gradually exterminated or absorbed those pre. decessors, the Moriori. Recent finds, however, seem to suggest that long anterior to either the Maori or Moriori as we know them, there was an occupation of these islands, probably by an entirely different people, whose traces are only now coming to light. •The latest discoveries bearing upon the subject have beer made in the great Awanui Swamp, which stretches across the country between Kaitaia township and the western coast, and which has only in recent years been drained and opened up for ’agricultural (purposes. Some, five miles west of Kaitaia stands the prosperous district of Pukepoto, chiefly noted for its smiling dairy farms and a model native school. There, the surface land, drained by modern swamps has only quite lately settled down to its permanent level, and as the surface land has subsided there have been revealed mile after mile of formed drains, evidently very many centuries old. Some of them have carried away in straight lines the waters of the streams that descend from the hills. Others are parallel with the creek-wafers, and at very short intervals, and again there are numbers of cross-drains, connecting i'-e others nearly at right angles. They are uniformly about sft in width at the surface, and apparently about sft deep, with spioothly-graded sides. During the swamp period, of course, these drains became filled up, but now that the swamp land has found its level, their courses can be traced in all directions, in a greater subsidence than that of the adjacent country, and when investigated they are seen to be filled with soft matter, clearly the accumulation of decayed vegetation. EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. The best proof that the drains date from a remote past is found in the fact that in places great totara trees have grown in them since their formation, and have themselves been long ago reduced to stumps. These ancient works are seen at -their best on the farm ef Mr. Walter Masters, near the Pukepoto native school, the pastures of which are traversed by a network of the old excava- | tions. In one part of Mr. Masters’ property there is a rectangular mound, d about a chain wide, which has evidently • been the site of a building. When the ; faTm was being opened up, the four | corner posts of this structure were still / in evidence, and standing upright. Those < who removed them state that they were 1 driven deep into the ground, and were I found to be pointed at the lower ends, , the work having evidently been done | with tools far in advance of the stone t implements of the Maori age. The J points are described as having been car- , ried out “in much the same way as a woman would sharpen a stake,” the ( dwindling sides being irregular. On a | neighboring farm, that of Mr. Joseph 1 Clark, a large wooden carving has lately i I been unearthed from the vicinity of some drains, in the shape of a human head, with a dragon’s body and tail. Again, there are in the possession of Mrs. W. M. Clarke, mistress of the Pukepoto school, two water-worn stones, taken i from the swamp, and bearing rude carv- I ings of human faces, qi’ite different in i character from those of the Maori. : TIMBER OF THE SWAMP. Contrary to the rule in the case of the large swamps of the Far North, the site of the Awanui seems to have carried very little kauri timber. Practically the only sign of a kauri forest at the Pukepoto end is a clump of about five acres on Mr. Masters’ property. This, however, is of remarkable character, for the roots remaining from some of the trees prove them to have been over 20 -ft. in diameter. From their vicinity something like two tons of gum were taken when opening up the farm. Another timber which seems to have been plentiful in the swamp is that known to the settlers as manawau, a wood which is more durable, though less hard, than puriri. Many of the beams which have been recovered after centuries of immersion are yet firm in texture, and still, after a considerable period of exposure to the air since their discovery, apparently fit for years of use as posts and for other purposes. WHO WERE THE ENGINEERS? So far as discovery has yet gone, the identity of the race who carried out the remarkable works in the swamp is as mysterious as that of the artists who executed the gigantic stone images of Easter Island, out in the Pacific. Maori tradition seems to be no help in elucidating the problem, for our immediate predecessors in migration seem to have no knowledge on the subject. Whether the works were carried out for agricultural purposes or for some other is not at all clear, though appearances do appear to point to drainage for farming purposes as probable. Possibly excavation in the neighborhood of the mound already spoken of might bring to light interesting evidence to the characteristics of the intelligent race who formerly inhabited the lands that within the memory of Maori and European settlers have been merely swamp. MONGOLIAN OCCUBANTS. One theory which has be«i advanced in a tentative way is that In the remote past, possibly when New Zealand was connected with Asia by a land bridge, this country was occupied by a Mongolian race. The evidence on which this supposition is based rests upon, among other points, the finding at considerable depths, in the southern part of the North Island, of soapstone relics, carved into shapes resembling the traditional figure of the Buddha. The carving ( found by Mr. Joseph Clark, and the ornaments owned by Mrs. W. M. Clarke, seem to go some distance in the same direction. At any rate it is patent that the Awanui Swamp furnishes an important field -for the researches of antiquarians and other scientists. Professor Worley, of the Auckland University College, visited the Pukepoto portion of the swamp a few days ago, and observed the lines of the ancient excavations, and other men interested in scientific discovery have also taken the matter in hand. There is therefore reason to hope that at no distant date something will be developed that will throw further light upon one of the most suggestive finds y& made bearing upon the pre-his-toric days of this Dominion.