Semadeni. — Ancient Maori Stone Implements. 



385 



Art. L. — Concerning certain Ancient Maori Stone Imflements found at 



Tauranga. 



By C. A. Semadeni. 



[Read before the Auckland Insfifute, 11th December, 1912.] 



About ten years ago, while I was living in Tauranga, I commenced to make 

 a collection of ancient Maori " curios," and during the next few years I 

 spent a good deal of my leisure time fossicking in the neighbourhood of 

 old and long-since-abandoned Native settlements, particularly near Mount 

 Maunganui, at the south-eastern entrance of the Tauranga Harbour. This 

 place must at one time have had a fairly dense population, and frequently 

 during a heavy westerly gale the sand was removed from the sites of old 

 dwellings near the beach. 



Here most of my finds were made. Among them are certain peculiar 

 implements of stone, rather roughly finished, and in the form of discs. Their 

 size and weight vary considerably. I suppose I found a dozen or there- 

 abouts in all, and perhaps as many more were picked up by others. They 



Front vteAv Side, vien 



RoTTGH Sketch of Stone Bowl. (About half-size. Weight, 4i lb.) 



were sometimes called, among some of my friends, " cheese-stones," and 

 this name is apt enough, for many of them do resemble small cheeses in 

 appearance. 



Although I often tried to find out what their possible use could have 

 been, I could find no one who had ever seen such implements used by the 

 Maoris, and some of the friends I consulted had had dealings with the Natives 

 for as long as fifty years before. It was pretty evident, then, that these 

 implements could not have been in use for a very considerable time. The 

 late Major Mair examined them, and so did Mr. Waite and Mr. Cheeseman, 

 and several old residents (both Maori and pakeha) of the Bay of Plenty. 



On one occasion a friend and I found one of these stones, and as we 

 strolled along the hard sand at low water my companion bowled it along 

 13— Trans. 



