MISCELLANEOUS.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 427, 11 February 1875, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Hard water has sometimes been thought unhealthy, ar»d people have taken great pains to erect cisterns where rain may bo had for the table. But nature seldom makes niiotakes, and spring water is almost uniformly hanl. It is found, on extcnsnc and careful enquiry, that hard water is more healthf-il Hiau soft. Tue body needs some of the salts held in -olulions in hard water, and suffers if they are not supplied in some way. In England the count) ies where hanl water abounds are more liealthy than those where soft water is used. The same fact appears in cities, where the mortality is lea>t in the sections supplied with hard water. Contrary to the general impression, soft water acts On leaden pipes more powerfully than hard, and induces darner. Tlioge who have rain water oisterns thinking them more healthy than spring water should itudy the wiser methods of nature. * ! Mr Theo. Daniel, M.P 0.,' furnishea to tho Southland Nem the following interesting account of a discovery of Maoris tooli and weapon* ; — " Abooi thrte je*r» ago t"he {

Maoris hpre, under Pitau. one of their old chiefs (hid warriors, were digging a very large matai or black pine stump out of his garden. It was about 3ft through, and when nine would be about 60h in the stem, *hd saj 2QO years o?4l. When they got the stump out, in working at the tap root, they turned up a lot ofcharcaal, and with it some old stone axes. This led to a further ■eireh, which resulted in the unearthing of 32 finished stone implements of all kinds, and about 50 others in a rough state, some half finished and others nearlj so, together with several btone hammers used in their manufacture. There were several smattv^'one chisel*, and a sort of gimlet or drill about a font foflV, a, id the thicknej* of a finger — used with a bow for boring, and also several pieces of fli«t (jisper). I aske I PiU'i und some of the oldest Maori* how they supposed the weapon*,. &c, came where they were found. Tueir idea was that they had belonged to a mechanic or axe maker, and — in ♦rpoctation of a raid, of which the natives lived in constant dread — they were planted in a hole in the ground ; that a flre was lighted over them for their better concealment { and that, the owner having bb j fn killed, they remained until founl as stated, the tr.e having grown over them in the me intime. Pitau, who is a big po werlul man, over 6ft higm , state* that some of the tools — an adze in particular over 2oin in longfc i and thick in proportion — are much heavier than the Maoris no* living could use. He ' thWfes t).|«re were giants in thos.e days' — an expression probably dent»d from the biblical teaching af the native minister, Salomon. Pitau dismissed the theory that -4 he implements had been I>l iced under the tree while growing, with the tenaikc 4 Did you not see the hole must have been a large one, with the tree in the centre mid the roots spreading all over?' I therefore conceive that these implements are tkeoldest on record as having heen f>und in New Zealand. Pitau s?! 1 the race that used then hud not then met with the «re jnBti>ne—that it was discovered by the present ra^e, who found it e<tsier to 'ashion and better to keep its edge when sh trpeued than the stone previously used. I hiva *>nne of the stone nrizes (li.iii'-iled) by me \et. (I m*y motion th*t I got handles made for a>out twenty by an old Mion.) Of the-»e [ inten I to give four to the Oiago Museum, and two with one of the hammers, to yonr Invercargill lnstitu tion, placing ihem in thp me.mi line in Ih • keeping of M-- M.Kenzie at Ins . rival e m us. uin, This wi.l complete t )te distribution of the collection, as I some time ago gave Captain Chipoam, of the Dido steam frigate, half a dozen ol the large t adz^s (handed), the dri 1 or gimlet, and a most beautiful transpirent grce.is'one adze, receiving from him a, liromisp to |)lace some of them in the British Museum. 5 me again I gave to Mr M»icandrew, who came with him and tooth.r gentlemen. This acconnt of the manner in which the implements were found has not been pub i?hed thus far, and may interest those of your readers who havn given any consideration to the questiou of the antiquity o|f the Maori nee." Ii a restaurant not long ago a gentlemau while devouring a plate of hash, ca-ne across a pearl sleeve button in it. He very justly complained to the big brawny wafier, the latter replying ill an astounding manner : kt Well, what dyer expec*, to get — a fyill shirt ?"