MAORI ART LOST

When a vast lake builds up behind the huge earth dam at Benmore. Otago, in a few years, a number of old faded Maori or “Moa-Hunter” drawings in cave shelters in the Waitaki Gorge will disappear beneath the water. Since 1957, the National Historic Places Trust has been concerned about the fate of the drawings. It initiated a survey of all the drawings in the area to be flooded—exploration for further sites, minute record of drawings found, and archaeological research. After three seasons of field work the task is now completed and a summary was recently given to the Royal Society Science Congress in Wellington, results pointing to widely differing, primitive artistic styles in the drawings, perhaps reflecting the different occupations of the inhabitants of the gorge. Mr John Pascoe, secretary of the Trust, has stated that an attempt will be made to remove some of the more striking drawings by cutting out sections of the rock, but the rock may crumble. If drawings are successfully obtained, they will be offered either to the Otago or Canterbury Museums, according to which side of the river they come from.