MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 November 1939, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES

FOOTPRINTS OF SAND (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) In 1938 Polack published a report of his first discovery of Moa bones and the actual footprints of the giant bird In 1839 the Revs Williams and Colenso heard stories from the Maoris at Mount Hikurangi of "a monstrous bird hidden in a cave, living on air. resembling a giant Tikoko (domestic fowl), watched over and protected by two giant Tuatara (spine-backed lizards.") It is interesting to note that the Tuataras on Stephen’s Island actually live in the burrows with the mutton birds. Knowing this Colenso thought nothing of the Moa story. Only six months ago Dr Oliver of the Dominion Observatory and six residents of Palmerston North visited Tangimoana (cry of the sea), near the mouth of the Rangitikei River . . . About sixty years earlier, the course of the river was diverted by floods, leaving the papa (blue clay) to bo covered by drift sand from the sea. These sand ridges are now being wash-1 ed away by the river which has re-1 turned to its original course. On the eastern bank is a level shelf of papa from the water’s edge to the sand ridges washed by the stream and the tide right along the river side for a mile, and from ten to fifty feet wide. Over this course are scores of clear tracks of the Moa. many measuring 15 inches from the central front claw to the heel, and the same between the first and the third toes. The secret

of their preservation is that they were filled with drift sand which was solidified by wet and then covered with tons of dry sand for perhaps 600 years.