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Maori Agriculture

Old Kumara Fields and Gravel Pits in Appleby District, Nelson

Old Kumara Fields and Gravel Pits in Appleby District, Nelson

"A favourite drive in Nelson is that known as 'Round the Three Bridges'. By it tourists are taken southward from the city across the Wairoa at Brightwater, thence across the Wai-iti to Waimea page 122West, through that district to Appleby bridge, and back via Richmond to their starting point. If it be spring time the observant traveller from Waimea West to Appleby will notice that much of the farm-land being made ready for sowing has a light gravelly mantle. These areas mark the sites of the old kumara plantations of the Maoris. In some cases scores of broad acres are seen covered, elsewhere the gravelled crests of undulations formed detached patches for cultivation. Here is ample evidence of the patient industry as well as the practical agricultural knowledge of these people. Impatient of summer's sluggish approach, the native farmers, by heaping gravel around the newly-planted kumara, increased thermal conditions, thus securing an earlier sprouting of the tuber.

As one gazes across the broad fields and in reminiscent mood tries to picture to himself the conditions in prehistoric days, he conjures up the scene of a large and influential tribe living for long years in this peaceful spot. Their pa being situated at the mouth of the Waimea at the extreme end of Tasman Bay was approachable by an outside foe only through the tortuous tidal creeks between outlying islands, hence its immunity from attack.

The surrounding country was admirably chosen for agricultural purposes, being a rich, alluvial soil deposited by the river. It is remote from high mountains and its northerly aspect and slope give it the additional value of unrestricted sunshine. The fertility of the soil was amply proved by the settlers who took up holdings in the district, their records of cereals raised per acre being among the highest in the Dominion.

The writer has knowledge of old kumara plots at Spring Grove, River Terrace, Hope, Brightwater, Waimea West and Appleby, the distance between the first and last named places being 8 to 10 miles.

The plantations around the old Maori settlement must have covered 800 to 1000 acres, and numerous excavations were made to get sufficient fine gravel.

These pits are now observable as deep hollows in the level fields, but one on Mr Challies's farm has never been brought into cultivation, and the hummocks of large stones remain untouched though overgrown with grass. From it an idea can be formed of the immense labour imposed upon these ancient workers in carrying out to the fields so many hundreds of tons of gravel. One of these pits is approximately 200 yards long by 70 yards broad or nearly 3 acres in extent, the depth being 5 or 6 feet, though sheep treading down the banks for the last 50 or 60 page 123 Fig. 40. Old Gravel Pit, Nelson District. See p. 121. Cawthron Institute Photo.years have no doubt filled up the hollows with the readily yielding shingle.

One of the larger pits covered an area of 8 to 10 acres, and the gravel and soil removed must have run into thousands of tons. Mr. Hammond, Senr., through whose paddock the old pit runs, remembers when the walls rose vertically 8 to 10 feet in height, but these he sloped down and then, by continuous ploughing round, he has changed the hole into a great hollow.

The roadway crosses the pit and at one spot the vertical walls are still visible. Mr. Hammond relates that the pits contained many heaps of large stones which he had carted away before commencing levelling operations. In those days stone implements were occasionally found in the old workings, and in other parts of the district the settlers unearthed several carved stone kumara gods. Other very large pits are to be seen nearer the sea, and there are scores of smaller excavations in widely separated localities; some being on the eastern side of the Waimea river.

The comparatively uniform size of the gravel leads one to the conclusion that sieves must have been used, though it is apparent that existing deposits of fine suitable material were available in some places.

On the old plantations the gravel has been very uniformly spread, and in some instances the limits of the gravelled area page 124are in perfectly straight lines, proving that the work was carried out systematically.

To the archaeologist the workings are most interesting, and the extensive areas of the old plantations prove that the ancient dwellers in this favoured spot lived for a long period peaceful and undisturbed."

A highly interesting paper on these gravel deposits described by Mr. Knapp is to be found in a paper by Mr. Rigg, published in Vol. XXXII. of the Journal of the Polynesian Society p. 85. The conclusions to which this observer has come are supported by Maori tradition.

In his booklet, Kaiapoi, Canon Stack writes:—"The pits and gravel-strewn surfaces in the Woodend district, which have puzzled the English settlers there to account for, remain to remind this generation that Canterbury once included among its vegetable products a tropical plant which is now extinct, but the cultivation of which, for many generations, occupied much of the time and thought of the former inhabitants of the country."