Letter to the Editor: Thursday March 9, 2017

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Our priceless heritage

Over the years various correspondents have expounded on a number of aspects of early New Zealand history, using many archaeological and obviously man-made features and artefacts to back claims of very early settlements of people that predate the coming of Maori to these shores.

Then there are those that are just as adamant in refuting anything that goes against the generally acknowledged history that has been traditionally taught in our schools for more than 100 years, starting with the great migration from Hawaiiki. (See New Zealand Skeleton in the Cupboard on U tube).

While these dissertations make for very interesting reading, and add value to the Age as journal worthy of the name, somewhere, someone is missing the point, and therein lies a real tragedy.

Successive governments have deliberately impeded r blocked serious investigation of authoritative scientific investigation of sites and artefacts to prove or disprove the various theories, assumptions or beliefs of those that have conducted genuine attempts at establishing the veracity of their belief in the face of incontrovertible evidence.

A significant number of sites were catalogued in the Waipoua Forest many years ago, and the record was quickly embargoed for 75 years.

However, an enlightened Minister of Conservation a few years ago lifted that embargo.

But the sites were not given the protection they deserved, and many of the recorded sites and structures have been removed or dispersed.

This amounts to vandalism and desecration at its worst.

All New Zealand citizens have an inalienable right to know the real truth of our earliest times, and if it has to accommodate an unpalatable fact that our history has to be re-written, then so be it. Better late than never.

The nation has very good reason to be grateful for a small but growing number of dedicated people who, on their own initiatives, have singly or collectively devoted time and money to documenting, researching and establishing the provenance of their discoveries to the point of absolute surety.

It is then extremely disheartening to come up against the brick walls of state bureaucracy, or worse, deliberate obstruction.

The weight of the findings of these dedicated people must, and eventually will prevail, and become accepted for the priceless heritage that is ours as of right.

S REILLY
Kaikohe