240 Transactions. — Miscellaneous . 



Art. XIX. — Chips from an Ancient Maori Workshop. 



By Captain G. Mair. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, Mh August, 1902.] 



Plates LI. and LII. 



On the shores of Tauranga Harbour, near Katikati, there used 

 to be a long sandy ridge about 40 ft. above sea-level, covered 

 with such plants as love the seaside. This place was known 

 by the name of Waiorooro (the waters of grinding or rubbing). 

 Struck by the singular inappropriateness of this name, I once 

 asked the late chief Hori Tupaea the reason why it was so 

 called. He said the name had come down from prehistoric 

 times ; that it had been the home in bygone ages of a 

 numerous tribe, now long forgotten — the Ngamarama. 



About ten years ago, owing to the destruction of the vege- 

 tation by fire and the trampling of stock, the sandhill began 

 to move seawards before the fierce and prevailing westerly 

 winds, leaving, in a short time, the original surface of clayey 

 soil, and forming a level sort of plateau some chains wide and 

 perhaps 150 yards long, and disclosing the site of an ancient 

 village with numerous middens and workshops. Around the 

 latter cartloads of obsidian, chert, and different kinds of stone 

 knives and flakes could be seen. Heaps of even-sized round 

 stones for net-sinkers and fishing-sinkers, and hundreds of 

 bone implements made from whalebone, human bone, moa, 

 albatros, and native-dog bones could be seen in every stage of 

 manufacture. Barbed points for fish-hooks or bird-spears 

 also strewed the surface. In fact, here were to be found 

 specimens of almost every domestic article used by a primitive 

 people. Here and there were stone platforms or pavements, 

 consisting of flat stones neatly fitted together and set in some 

 kind of cement, apparently made from ashes or burnt shell. 

 These places were circular, about 6 ft. in diameter, and were 

 probably used for roasting or drying food on. The corner 

 posts (of totara) of many of the houses were still standing, but 

 crumbled to brown dust on being touched. None of the huts 

 appeared to have been more than 8 ft. wide and 10 ft. to 12 ft. 

 long. Stone hammers were also very numerous, and so were 

 stone axes, adzes, gouges, wedges, chisels, drill-points, &c. I 

 gathered over two hundred perfect implements, while pro- 

 bably twice that number of broken ones I discarded. There 

 were also several wooden weapons — paddles, spears, &c. — 

 some showing signs of rough carving ; but they fell to pieces 

 on being touched, as did most of the bone articles — hooks, &c. 

 — excepting the uhis or tattooing-adzes and beautiful little 



