516 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Art. LIX. — Note on the supposed Fire-drill found in the 

 Cave at Moa-bone Point, Smnner, 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., Curator of the Canter- 

 bury Museum. 



{Bead before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th October, 



1893.] 



In the list of objects found in the Moa-bone Point Cave Sir 

 J. von Haast has recorded " apparatus for lighting fire by 

 circular motion, made of pukatea (Atherosj^erma novce- 

 zealandicB) ." '•' Now, it is well known that the Maoris, like, all 

 the other Polynesians, used to obtain fire by rubbing a pointed 

 piece of wood longitudinally on another flat piece, a method 

 employed, I believe, by no other race of men. The fire-drill 

 — which was used throughout America, in Africa, in the 

 Indian Archipelago, and even in Australia — was quite un- 

 known to the Maoris and to the Polynesians ; consequently 

 Sir Julius von Haast's statement that the moa-huuters of the 

 Sumner Cave used it is of great importance, although he does 

 not seem to have recognised its bearing on the origin of the 

 moa-hunters, for he makes no other allusion to it. 



This so-called fire-drill is in the Canterbury Museum, and 

 I cannot understand what induced Dr. Haast to give it such a 

 name. Neither of the two pieces of wood shows any signs of 

 charring — as the rubbing- sticks do — so that the idea that 

 they formed a fire-drill must have been inferred from their 

 shape. 



The supposed drill is about Gin. long, the handle portion 

 squared, and about -|^in. thick on each side. Towards the 

 other end it expands to more than -l^in. in breadth, but re- 

 maining ^m. in thickness. At one corner of the expanded 

 end there is a conical point which forms the " drill." The 

 squared handle, and the point not being in the centre, are both 

 against the supposition that the instrument was intended to 

 be used with circular motion, and it is much more probable 

 that the stick was intended for rubbing. 



The other piece of wood is flat, rather more than |-in. 

 broad, by Jin. thick, and is now about 2^in. long; but, as it 

 has been broken at both ends, it may have been much longer. 

 In the middle line, and at about one-third the length from one 

 end, a roughly-circular hole has been cut completely through 



* Haast : " Researches in Suinner Moa-cave," Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 

 vii., p. 83. 



