Fulton.- — An Account of a (supposed Maori) Sharpening-stone. 471 



Art. L. — An Account of a (supposed Maori) Sharpening-stone. 



By Robert Fulton, M.D. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 9th November, 1920 ; received by Editor, 31st December, 



1920 ; issued separately, 12th August, 1921.] 



Plate LXX. 



In 1917, when travelling from Tauranga to Whakatane, I was informed of 

 a Maori sliarpening-stone near the Mirniha crossing, near Matata, and I 

 seized the opportunity of examining an object of such great interest. At 

 that time the railway was not constructed, and the stone was near the 

 coach-road, half under a wire fence bordering a piece of swampy land. It 

 was almost embedded in very damp ground, and was partly covered with 

 rank vegetation. From memory I should say it was about 4 ft. or 5 ft. 

 long, and 2 ft. wide — a hard, volcanic-looking rock, possibly a meteorite, 

 and so far as I could judge there was no sign of any stone in the neighbour- 

 hood the least approaching to it in character. The roads were not metalled, 

 and there did not seem to be any of the usual andesite blue road-metal 

 one sees in so many places in the South. Rarely did one see a pebble or 

 a pebbly stream, but all along the coast there was an abundance of soft 

 sandstone, and cliffs of sandstone and clay, so soft as to be curiously cut 

 and channelled by the sand-laden wind, and also by the extraordinarily 

 heavy downpours of rain occasional in that locality. The only hard rock 

 I saw for many miles was Pohaturoa, the famous sacred rock at Whaka- 

 tane ; but even that appeared to me to be quite different in character. 

 I had no chance of taking photos or even of making a careful description, 

 with measurements, &c, being on the spot for only a few minutes ; but what 

 I saw of the stone was sufficient to make me anxious to learn something of 

 its history, and, if possible, to secure photos. No one in Tauranga, where 

 I made many inquiries on the three occasions of my visiting that town, 

 could tell me much about it. People had vaguely heard of it ; I could find 

 no one who had actually seen it. The motor-driver, who often passed near 

 it, had been told where it was, and said he thought he could find it for me. 

 He had heard it said that the Maori of old came from far and near to 

 sharpen their stones upon it ; but he seemed to have remembered the mere 

 facts, without the name of a single informant. No one in Whakatane 

 seemed even to have heard about it, and I could find no reference to it 

 in any book, nor could I learn anything from the leading authorities on 

 Maori matters in New Zealand. After three years' endeavour I have, 

 through the good offices of Mr. Arnold Woodward, surveyor, of Whakatane, 

 secured some photographs, and he has also been kind enough to unearth 

 what he could about its local history. The stone is in a spot about three miles 

 north of Matata, and Mr. Fred Burt, who has lived there for thirty-five 

 years, states that on his coming there the stone was covered with high 

 manuka, and had not been used for many years. It was uncovered by 

 Mr. Burt's father, but until the railway was built it was periodically 

 covered with water dammed up by sandbanks after storms, and again left 

 dry on the water breaking through the sandbanks. 



