MORE MOA FOOTPRINTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3603, 16 August 1912, Page 5

MORE MOA FOOTPRINTS.

AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY AT PALMERSTON NORTH. PAPA LEDGES DISCLOSE FOUR IMMENSE MARKS FULLER INVESTIGATIONS TO BE MADE. Bj Telegrapfi—Special Correspondent PALMERSTON N., Aug. 15.

hour clear footprints, apparently those of New Zealand’s prehistoric wingless birds, the Mo®, were- discovered on the Mana-watu River bank, near Fitzroy Street, Palmerston North, Yesterday. ’

The discoverer was Mr. G. E. Coles, a young V elshman from Monmouthshire, now residing in' Broad Street, Palmerston. The news of the discovery will be of great interest to ornithologists all over New Zealand. Air. Coles is a keen student in an unofficial sort of way of things prehistoric. • When lie arrived in New Zealand two vears ago, it did not take him long t-o drift into acquaintanceship with the curator of the Museum at Auckland. There he examined and discussed New Zealand’s only complete skeleton of the ure-liistoric; bird, and he nurtured his interest in it afterwards on every ■possible occasion. Among other things lie had the good fortune to see photographs of ’moa footprints discovered on an old mud flat at Gisborne- His interest in prehistoric things tok him down to the riverside, where the crumbling banks offered a ham'- hunting-ground for things that were before the white man came to New Zealand.

Just behind a. wrecked protective mat washed b— the floods that scoured’ down the bank are outcrops of.old hardened blue mud-bank, or as local residents usually call it. “papa.” It- was here that Air Coles made his very interesting discovery_ Picking his way along below tlio crumbling cliff life saw at a place where the slab’s surface was smoother and leveller than elsewhere, impressions that strangely resembled those of Gisborne. An examination disclosed a line of four of these prints in splendidly clear outline. They were obviously the three-tced footmarks of s-ome huge bird.

Each footmark measures 18 inches across from the tip of the middle toe to the rear of the foot, while the width was 12 inches.

The length of the stride was 21 feet in each instance, the clear space from foot to foot being 18 inches. The marks ran almost in a straight line, there being only a very slight divergence to right- and left, as the alternative foot was placed down in the same way.

The direction of the middle toe mark varies very slightly alternately to right and left. At the rear of this slab of soft blue rock rises the river bank, covering, no doubt, many of these impressions. In front of the last one the shelf ends abruptly, and the river rushes past to the "right. Also at the edge of the slab is another foot-marksy solitary and less wellpreserved, but- still undoubtable- At the left is another close to where the blue rock and yellow clay begin to intermingle. The footmarks yesterday, when Air. Coles found them, were drv, but the rain this morning filled them with water.

Air. Coles called at the “Standard” office this morning, and arrangements Avere made with "Mr. Robert Gardner (president of the Palmerston Philosophical Society) to inspect the find. Air. Gardner expressed himself as delighted with the discovery, and with the extensiveness, clearness, and genuineness of the footprints. Mr. Kenneth, Wilson (secretary of tho Palmerston Philosophical Society) was afterwards communicated with, the intention being to photograph the slab immediately. The possibility of cutting up blocks of the blue" rock containing the impessions and removing them to the Palmerston Aluseum is under consideration .

The moa was a bird varying in height, according to variety, from 4ft to lift. The date of it's final extinction is a matter of controversy among naturalists. Some consider the freshness of the traces indicate its existence within 100 years past, while others think it was extinct 500 years ago, before the Maoris came.

Air- Tremaine, a gentleman who has spent considerable time on the river at Palmerston, says he has on several occasions found footprints similar to those now reported, but lie did not attach much importance to them. He has also found bones which, he believes, may have come from birds of that type. Local naturalists are experiencing anxiety lest curious spectators should swarm down to the interesting spot and obliterate the traces by their own footmark. Efforts are being made to find the landowner and get an embargo placed against trespassers. The owner is a Air. Bergerson. Another danger is that another flood may occur and carry away the ledge.