214 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
are old oven-stones, but the larger ones would be anvils and hearth-stones. 
The presence of small gravel in the soil of parts of the surrounding land 
suggest that the Jcumara has been cultivated here in past generations. 
The Titahi middens being easily accessible, it follows that few objects 
of interest are to be found on the surface. The following articles were 
picked up by the writer : A stone hammer (greywacke) ; a small stone 
adze made from a heavy flake ; ten keen-edged flakes of greywacke, used 
as knives or struck off in the process of fashioning an implement ; a stone 
cutter ; flake of obsidian ; piece of a human jaw ; two butt ends of stone 
adzes affected by drifting sand. On the old pa at Tomahawk Point a 
worked stone sinker and a piece of silicified argillite were found. This 
was the only fish-line sinker found in this neighbourhood by the writer, 
and the scarcity of these simple artifacts in the Wellington district has 
been a source of surprise. The natives of these parts depended largely on 
the sea in regard to food-supplies, and the greater part of the coast-line 
was not suitable for the manipulation of nets, yet line-sinkers are rarely 
found. The natives were not as a rule given to using unworked stone for 
the purpose. In 1914 some forty-odd grooved net-sinkers were found in 
half an hour near the mouth of the Waitara River. 
A peculiarity of this Titahi midden, as also of others at Urenui and 
Onehunga (Auckland), consists of a remarkable number of diminutive shells 
that could not have been collected as part of a food-supply. One can but 
marvel why they should have been carried hither from the beach. 
The work of collecting shell-fish was one performed by women as a 
rule, but men took part in the task of gaining such species as Haliotis, as 
also the koura, or crayfish. Both sexes were expert at the art of ruku paua, 
or obtaining the Haliotis by diving-—if the latter expression be correct 
when describing the Maori mode of descending feet first. 
The other midden, at the southern side of the bay, calls for no special 
remark, the shells seen being of the same species, but no large number of 
Amphibola [are seen. 
The Onehunga Midden. 
This Onehunga is a shallow indentation about a mile from Titahi and 
on the southern side of the entrance to Porirua Harbour. The words one 
hunga denote a sandy beach, hence they form a jdace-name jnet with in 
many districts. A short walk from Titahi across the eastern slopes of 
Whitireia (Mount Cooper) takes one to Onehunga, at which place is the 
site of an old village. At this place is a shell-midden in which were found 
shells of twenty-seven different species of mollusca, the greatest number 
found in any midden of the district, including Wellington and Paekakariki. 
The shells found here were Chione stutchburyi (the most numerous), 
Haliotis iris, H. australis, Amphibola crenata, Turbo smaragdus, Mytilus 
edulis, Echinus, Helcioniscus, Thais haustrum, T. succincta, Mesodesma 
australe, M. subtriangulatum, Voluta arabica elongata, Struthiolaria papulosa, 
Siphonalia nodosa, Phalium achatinum pyrum, Turritella, Cominella maculata, 
C. maculosa, Siphonalia mandarina, S. dilatata (?), Tellina deltoidalis, Scutus 
ambiguus, Cantharidus, Calliostoma, Pinna, and Monodonta. 
There was also probably another species of Mytilus (? canaliculus). Apart 
from Turritella and Monodonta, we have here twenty-five species that ap¬ 
parently all came under the heading of food-supplies, the different species 
showing that these folk worked both sandy and rocky beaches, as also the 
shores of the inner harbour, for Amphibola crenata is not found in the outer 
bay. It seems strange that Astraea sulcata was not found at this midden, 
