Chapman. — On the Working of Greenstone. 497 



formerly insisted were not relics of the Maoris, but of an older 

 race of moa-huuters, as being of contemporaneous origin with 

 those objects. However, for what it is worth, I should men- 

 tion that von Haast has placed the chert knives on one side of 

 this case, and has marked the7n from the moa-hunters' en- 

 campment. 



Modes of woeking. 



There can be no doubt that the highest expression of 

 Maori art is a thing of the past. The highly-skilled wood- 

 carvers who worked with tools of stone, or bone, or sea-shell 

 are all gone, and have given place to rougher workmen who 

 use steel tools : still, some of the work of the present day is 

 beautifully done, and good workmen should be encouraged. 

 Thomson, in "The Story of New Zealand," says few specimens 

 of mechanical skill are furnished by the natives, the highest 

 example being the fashioning of hard greenstone into meres 

 and ornaments. This is done by friction with flint and wet 

 sand. The greenstone-cutter of olden times has almost dis- 

 appeared, though Captain Mair, a high authority, informed 

 me a few years ago, contrary to the opinion I had expressed, 

 and which had been published by Professor Fischer, that some 

 few old men still worked hei-tikis. A better notion, however, 

 of the modern method is, I think, to be derived from a re- 

 translation of what I wrote to Professor Ulrich : " When the 

 political prisoners were down here (at Dunedin) two years 

 ago, I saw more than a hundred men cutting greenstone in a 

 most systematic way. These people worked in companies. 

 They had gridiron-like apparatus made of fencing- wire, having 

 each ten or fewer bars. This apparatus was worked back- 

 wards and forwards with a sawing movement between two of 

 them, while a third fed the machine with water and sand out 

 of an old teapot or some similar vessel. In this way a slab 

 was cut into eleven narrow strips, which were then rubbed 

 down into ear-pendants on a flat stone, and afterwards drilled 

 through at one end. When afterwards liberated the Maoris 

 had thus accumulated a little capital in the shape of manu- 

 factured goods, the Government having supplied the raw 

 material. They also made meres. I saw them making one 

 in the gaol-yard on the grindstone. This occupation tends to 

 keep them in bodily and mental health. One day I saw two 

 of them cutting a piece of malachite in two. This they called 

 ' Pounamu no Ingirani ' — i.e., ' Greenstone of England.' " 



It is evident from an examination of numerous sx^ecimens 

 in my collection that greenstone was cut by means of a very 

 blunt instrument. I should say that a cutting-edge ^in. wide 

 was used for large pieces, while for cutting smaller pieces a 

 narrower though still a very wide tool was used. I find in old 

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