Dkndt. — On Moriori Belies. 127 



When out riding on the shore close to the chief centre of 

 population (Waitangi) I came upon a place where the sand- 

 cliff was crumbling away, and old coffins were tumbling out in 

 fragments and discharging their contents in ghastly medley — 

 in one lay the remains of a man, with an old toothbrush, 

 numerous buttons, and clay pipes close by ; in another the 

 remains of a child with the bones of the feet still in the 

 boots, for the corpses appear to have been buried in their 

 clothes, together with their personal effects. On at least one 

 occasion the Maoris are said to have removed the bones from 

 one of these burial-places to a more suitable locality. 



Although human remains are left to be kicked about on 

 the beach by the hoofs of the horses in the most promiscuous 

 manner, yet the Maoris and half-castes have a strong objec- 

 tion to any one interfering with the bones. One of them tried 

 to persuade me that any such interference was punishable by 

 fine, though I believe there is no power on the island autho- 

 rised to inflict such a penalty. The Maoris, however, still 

 own much of the land, and, with the half-castes, are about 

 equal in number to the Europeans, with whom they are quite 

 on terms of equality. Hence they can make things uncom- 

 fortable in many ways if they choose to do so, and it is desir- 

 able for the sake of peace to observe their prejudices as far as 

 possible, though it certainly seems a little strange, in view 

 of their treatment of the Morioris, that they should feel so 

 strongly with regard to the removal of the bones of their 

 victims. Possibly there is some superstitious feeling about it, 

 perhaps some lingering idea of tapu, or perhaps they fear lest 

 the remains of their own people might also be disturbed. I 

 had the pleasure of being hospitably entertained by one 

 half-caste who had fenced in an old Moriori burying-place on 

 his own property in order to keep the stock away from it, 

 with the unexpected and very pleasing result that the great 

 forget-me-not (Myosotidmm nobile), the so-called " Chatham 

 Island lily," with its huge rhubarb-like leaves and bunches of 

 blue flowers, elsewhere almost exterminated by the sheep, has 

 begun to spread again vigorously in this locality. 



At Wharekauri, Mr. Chudleigh's estate iu the northern 

 part of the island, I saw many bones lying beneath the trees 

 in a dense thicket near the shore, and was informed that the 

 Morioris sometimes tied their dead to trees in erect postures 

 with a stick in hand pointing upwards to represent a pigeon- 

 spear, the bodies being tied with the stems of that curious 

 climbing plant, the supplejack of the settlers (Rhipogomim 

 xcandens). Mr. Gilbert Mair, in a paper read before the 

 Wellington Philosophical Society in 1870,* also refers to this 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iii., 1870, p. 311. 



