Hamilton. — Notes from Murihiku. 169 



Art. XII. — Notes from Miirihiku. 



By A. Hamilton. 



[Eead before the Otago Institute, 9th June, 1896.1 



Plates VI.-X. 



On Some Paintings on the Walls of Eock- shelters in 

 THE Waitaki Valley. 



In America, in Australia, and in many countries of the Old 

 World there are found occasionally, in suitable places, figures 

 or symbols — painted, cut, or scratched — representing usually 

 men or animals, sometimes symbols or marks which can in 

 some cases be ascertained to have a definite meaning, or, at 

 any rate, to correspond very closely with those whose mean- 

 ing is either definitely or generally known . 



In Australia a great number of carvings, paintings, and 

 sculptures, made by the aborigines, have recently been 

 described, and evidence has been adduced that the custom of 

 making symbols or records on rock-surfaces has been pre- 

 valent down to the present time. For many years after the 

 settlement of Australia little was known of the rock-records of 

 the natives. The first to call attention to them was that ob- 

 servant navigator Captain Cook, and, later. Governor Phillip, 

 Surgeon White, Captain Tench, Flinders, and the officers of 

 the first Government on the establishment of the Colony of 

 New South Wales. They were followed by Mitchell, Sir 

 George Grey, and subsequently Leichhardt, and other explorers 

 of the interior have pointed out paintings and carvings over 

 a very wide field. A wondrous halo of romance and mystery 

 lies over these mystic signs, for the scanty tradition of the 

 Australian races throws no light on them. The problem of 

 the origin of many of these paintings is a matter of great 

 interest, and is attracting much attention. 



It should not be forgotten that in the southern portion of 

 the South Island, in the district or area formerly known to the 

 Maoris as Murihiku, there are a considerable number of rock- 

 pictographs quite equal in interest to those of either America 

 or Australia. The late Professor Von Haast described in 

 several papers before the New Zealand Institute, and other 

 societies, the rock-paintings at the Weka Pass, and thereby 

 raised a considerable amount of controversy. There are other 

 series of rock-pictographs in several places in the Canterbury 

 District — on the Tengawai Eiver, and other limestone dis- 



