500 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



stone round the edges. The cut in it suggests the idea that 

 the workman was proceeding to work the good centre to waste, 

 and leave the rubbish to work up into implements, while the 

 cut he is making longitudinally through the centre of the slab, 

 cleaving it into two thin slabs, is not straight. However, he 

 may have known his business better than I do. I have cer- 

 tainly seen instances where the best of the stone has been 

 wasted in the cutting. In the magnificent collection in the 

 possession of Mr. John White, of Anderson's Bay, Dunedin 

 (not to be confused with the late Mr. John White, the author 

 of the "Maori History"), there are twelve pieces showing 

 cuts. The cuts are, as a rule, beautifully clean. Some of 

 them meet perfectly true. In one instance the distance to 

 which the cuts are "out" is so great that one has been turned 

 in with a long slope to make them meet. In some cases ap- 

 parently rather purposeless cuts are made ; in one a very 

 broad axe is cut longitudinally down the centre to make two 

 chisels of ordinary proportions. His finest specimen is a 

 boulder of hawahatva, or auliunga, 13flb. in weight, one-third 

 of which is being taken off by a longitudinal cut. The propor- 

 tions of the stone are 12in. by 5^in. by din. The cut is 1ft. 

 long, and is yfin. to Ij^in. deep, and from xfin. to jfin, 

 wide. On the other side of the block is the commencement 

 of a cut which would meet the other neatly. In another case, 

 w"orking on a flat stone, the cuts have so nearly met that the 

 stone was found parted, the two pieces lying together. 



In doing the fine work of the hei-tiki and other objects, 

 where something like true carving appears, I am told the shell 

 of the common pipi, or cockle, so much used by the Maoris as 

 a ready-made tool, was commonly employed. 



I have no doubt that fine-sandstone cutters, which we find 

 in numbers in old Maori camps, were used where procurable. 

 I find the finest class of sandstone in situ at Shag Point, 

 Taiaroa Head. Dr. Shortland says the Maoris obtained it 

 from a place which I take to be the vicinity of the Pleasant 

 Eiver, where Mr. A. Hamilton has found traces of their quarry- 

 ing operations. In my collection there are many neat little 

 tools of this stone. 



It is an obvious feature of Maori stone implements that 

 they never reached the point exemplified, I think, only in 

 Scandinavia, of having a regular hole for a handle. But occa- 

 sionally Maori implements have a hole through which a string 

 is put to carry it. I have one such of greeiistone and one of 

 a commoner stone. In general it is a rare feature. In Mr. J. 

 White's splendid collection, embracing six hundred pieces, 

 there are eighteen pendants, needles, and shawl-pins, and 

 thirty-four other objects, consisting of chisels, fish-hook points, 

 and large pendants so drilled. Some of these large pendants 



