MAORI ADZES FOUND

Five Maori stone adzes were an accidental find made while prisoners were digging in the New Plymouth prison's gardens. They are to be given to the Taranaki Museum. Speculation on how the adzes came to be grouped in this one place recalls that Marsland Hill in earlier times was a noted terraced Maori pa, taken by siege and assault about 1760 and not afterwards occupied. It is therefore possible that workers from this pa, were using the adzes on the site where they have been discovered, particularly as this is fairly close to a bend in the Huatoki Stream. The site was also, however, the scene of a noted Maori ambush when a marauding party from Oakura was caught there while returning from storming the Rewarewa Pa, at the mouth of the Waiwakaiho River. This venture is estimated to have taken place between 1805 and 1810. The slaughter was very great, with the Oakura Maori routed. It is therefore also possible that the adzes were loot from Rewarewa dropped by the fleeing Maoris.

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