428 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



yielded few relics excepting charred bones of the moas and 

 other birds, together with bones of the extinct native rat and 

 dog. At the present time, however, no perfect exploration of 

 the floors of these rude dwellings has been made. About 

 90 per cent, of the valuable stone implements, weapons, and 

 other articles used by the prehistoric Maori have been 

 ploughed up on the open plains, also on the lower downs, and 

 in the smaller valleys near the base of the ranges. :,: As they 

 have been found in every district in Ashburton County, 

 there can be no doubt but that Canterbury was formerly 

 occupied by a large Maori population. At the mouths of 

 the larger rivers of the plains umus, or Maori ovens, of 

 different ages were formerly very abundant, but have nearly 

 all been obliterated by the plough or hidden under the dense 

 growth of English grasses. Along the base of the ranges be- 

 tween the Rakaia and Eangitata Rivers innumerable old ovens 

 were discovered by the early settlers when ploughing the tus- 

 sock land, while several ancient encampments still remain in 

 the district unexplored. A large number of both perfect and 

 broken stone implements, rude and polished, of great age and 

 manufactured from various rocks occurring in the neighbour- 

 hood and from the valued greenstone of the West Coast, have 

 also been discovered there. The forest and fern clad country 

 between the two great glacier rivers afforded a great supply of 

 food to the prehistoric Maori. Until about fifteen years ago the 

 magnificent primeval forest at Springburn was teeming with 

 pigeons and parrots and other bush-birds, while in the swamps 

 ducks, swamp - hens, and wekas abounded. Mr. Donald 

 McKenzie has preserved on his property at Stavely a solitary 

 grand old black-pine (Podocarpus spicata), which the Maoris 

 of Little River assert was tabooed in olden times by the chiefs 

 of Ngatimamoe, and later by those of Ngaitahu, when on 

 their annual rat-trapping, pigeon-spearing, and bird-snaring 

 excursions to the district from old Kaiapohia. Unfortunately, 

 the charming old forest is now disappearing rapidly, and with 

 it also the old haunts and traces of the ancient Maori. 



The area of primeval forest existing at Little River, south 

 of Banks Peninsula, fifty years ago was all that remained — 

 excepting a small area at Riccarton — of an extensive forest, 

 formerly extending thirty-five miles south of the peninsula 

 around Lake Waihora (Ellesmere) on the plains side, and 

 inland for fifteen miles. In much of the heavy swampy land 



* The admirably arranged collection in the Canterbury Museum 

 contains several axes and adzes, found in the South Island, identical in 

 form and manufactured from the same material as are several in the 

 Auckland and Wellington Museums. Possibly some of them may have 

 been brought hither during the several migrations from the North Island 

 during the last few centuries. 



