Adze estimated to be up to 600 years old

FOUND: An adze found in the Waitotara Valley.PHOTO/FROM INTERNET

Eltham man Vincent Kersey found a Maori adze while hunting in the upper Waitotara Valley - an area he has hunted for about 10 years.

Mr Kersey was looking for pigs and climbing a track he'd made high on a ridge a week ago when he looked down and spotted the adze, lodged in the roots of a tree he had cut. It was about 10cm long, and made of a grey stone.

He let people know about the find on the Wanganui Buy Sell Swap page on Facebook and, as a result, was contacted by a man with connections to Nga Rauru, the Waitotara Valley iwi.

The man, who did not want to be named, had only seen the adze in the online photograph, but he estimated it was between 200 to 600 years old, and probably a type used for hollowing out canoes.

He said it may have been found in a tapu (sacred) area. If that was so, he was concerned about the finder's welfare.

Whanganui Regional Museum collection manager Trish Nugent-Lyne said, since 1975, anyone who found a Maori artefact must, by law, register it with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. The registration is done through the local museum, in this case the Whanganui Regional Museum.

When the artefact is registered, the ministry lets local Maori know about the find, so that they can make a case to claim it. An artefact found near the Patea River mouth has recently been registered, and given to the Aotea Utanganui Museum of South Taranaki.

Some tribes have been successful in claiming and keeping artefacts.

Mr Kersey didn't know there were any laws about such finds, and said he had found another adze in the Waitotara Valley years earlier. It was much bigger than the latest one, and he gave it to a person he was working for at the time.

"It was probably the wrong thing to do, from what I have been told."