538 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



secured, great canoes bought — in short, it was as gold is with you. Each 

 chief owned axes such as that, and with them the bodies of the van- 

 quished were cut up after a victory. The use of tliat stone did not stop 

 there. Small fragments were rounded and pierced as beads, with whicla 

 were made the necklaces you have noticed round the necks of the ladies 

 of chiefs' families. But since your arrival your axes so sharp, and your 

 brilliant necklaces, have caused us to forget our ancient arts, and that 

 stone, once so precious, remains unused." 



M. Garnier with difficulty blasted out some large blocks, 

 finding generally that his shots went off like guns instead of 

 shattering the rock. He found it impossible to purchase even 

 the small beads from the natives. 



The axe described by Zachario must be similar to that in 

 the Colonial Museum, at Wellington. It is a disc of green- 

 stone, Sin. long by Gin. wide, very thin and highly polished. 

 By means of two holes near the edge it has affixed to it a 

 handle 20in. long, covered with tappa cloth tied on with a 

 band of sinnet. It forms a most formidable casse-Ute, but not 

 a useful tool. It is a dark green, of several shades inter- 

 mixed, and with a brownish tinge. It is undoubtedly nephrite, 

 and in New Zealand would be regarded as of a rare but not 

 unknown colour. 



At page 312 of M. Garnier's work, from which the above 

 quotation is taken, in speaking of the people of Uvea, one of 

 the Loyalty Islands, he says, " Most of them had ornamented 

 their throats with necklaces of the green jade of Ouen Island. 

 "We essayed in vain to purchase some of these ; our most 

 brilliant offers failed to obtain a single one of the ornaments. 

 It is always thus among the tribes of New Caledonia : if one 

 wishes to possess one of these necklaces, one must purchase 

 them bead by bead." 



Neio Hebrides Jade. 



In the Colonial Museum there is also a small yellowish- 

 green adze, possibly of jade, from the New Hebrides, and a 

 very dark stone adze, similar in shape, from the same country. 

 Besides these, however, there is from the same islands a pale 

 greenstone axe with five transverse seams of black. This is 

 unlike New Zealand stone ; it is more like some I have seen 

 from China. Its shape is characteristic of the New Hebrides, 

 not of New Zealand. It is manifestly a jade of a different 

 character from that found in New Zealand. 



NeiD G^cinea. 



The Colonial Museum also contains specimens of the very 

 dark greenstone of which there are several fine specimens in 

 the Technological Museum in Melbourne. I am unable to 

 say whether it is an allied stone. 



