Download RECORDS OF THE AUCKLAND MUSEUM Vol. 45, 2008

RECORDS OF THE AUCKLAND MUSEUM Vol. 45, 2008
ABSTRACTS
THE MILITARY ENGAGEMENT AT KATIKARA, TARANAKI, 4 JUNE 1863
NIGEL PRICKETT
Abstract. Maori and Pakeha politics and objectives which led to renewed fighting two years after the
end of the First Taranaki War are outlined, along with events on the ground south of New Plymouth
which culminated at Katikara on 4 June 1863. The Katikara engagement is described. Forces involved
are defined as is possible and casualties listed from available information. The relevant archaeological
and historical landscape is described. Aspects of the strategic results for both sides are examined.
Katikara provides an example for the study of other engagements in the New Zealand Wars where
there will also be much still to learn.
KEYWORDS: Maori; British Army; New Zealand Wars; Taranaki; Katikara; Tataraimaka; Wairau; war
casualties.
‘OXFORD MAN LEARNED MAORI CRAFT’: THE WORK OF THOMAS AUBREY CHAPPÉ HALL
MOIRA WHITE
Abstract. This paper examines the work of Thomas Aubrey Chappé Hall, a late 19th century English
immigrant to New Zealand, who was taught to carve by Hori Pukehika, the celebrated Te Ati Haunuia-Paparangi carver. Hall’s ‘restoration’ work on Maori artefacts for display in the Auckland and Otago
museums is of particular note.
KEYWORDS: Thomas Aubrey Chappé Hall; woodcarving; Maori carving; pataka; tukutuku; New
Zealand museums
FOSSIL RECORD OF THE POST-GLACIAL MARINE BREACHING OF AUCKLAND’S VOLCANIC
MAAR CRATERS
BRUCE W. HAYWARD, MARGARET S. MORLEY, ASHWAQ T. SABAA, HUGH R. GRENFELL,
RHIANNON DAYMOND-KING, CATHERINE MOLLOY, PHIL A. SHANE AND PAUL A.
AUGUSTINUS
Abstract. Fourteen of Auckland’s young basalt volcanoes consist primarily of maar craters surrounded
by tuff rings. Eight of these were breached by rising sea level in the early Holocene and had filled with
mud to become intertidal lagoons by the late Holocene. In the last decade the sediment fill of four of
these lagoons (Hopua, Onepoto Basin, Orakei Basin, Pukaki Lagoon) has been cored and provides a
direct record of their post-eruption history. After eruption each maar crater became a freshwater lake
and later developed a small overflow stream. Diatom-rich mud slowly accumulated on their lake floors
until ~9000-6600 years ago when rising sea level overtopped the sills of their overflow streams and
they became silled, subtidal lagoons that rapidly filled with mud introduced in suspension with each
high tide. Orakei Basin had already filled with sediment to become a freshwater swamp prior to
breaching and drowning by rising sea level ~9000-8500 years ago.
The fossil record of ostracods, foraminifera, and small molluscs, provides insights into the ecology
and subsequent history of these unusual coastal marine environments. Their subtidal faunas had
unusually low diversity, strongly dominated by the foraminifera Ammonia spp. and ostracod
Callistocythere neoplana, often accompanied by the foraminifera Haynesina depressula and Elphidium
advenum, the microbivalves Arthritica bifurca and Nucula hartvigiana, and sometimes by the ostracod
?Phlyctenophora zealandica. Onepoto Basin supported more diverse foraminiferal and ostracod faunas
which suggest that it may have had a deeper, perhaps unsilled entrance that allowed greater exchange of
the lagoon’s deep bottom waters with those in the adjacent harbour. This was a result of an initially lower
overflow sill and earlier breaching (~9000 cal. yrs ago) than the others. Large numbers of well-preserved,
juvenile or low-density foraminiferal specimens of outer harbour species are inferred to have been
introduced into the lagoons suspended in the incoming tidal waters. These are most common in the two
Manukau Harbour maar lagoons where they are largely confined to the subtidal mud. Once intertidal
conditions had developed, the introduced microfossils appear to have been washed back out by each
retreating tide.
The subtidal lagoons rapidly filled with mud to intertidal depths where faunas had even lower diversity
and were more strongly dominated (>75% relative abundance) by Ammonia and Callistocythere,
commonly accompanied by the larger bivalve Austrovenus stutchburyi. This faunal association is
characteristic of tidal mudflats around the upper reaches of both harbours today. Faunal recognition of
the cored depth of the transition from subtidal to low tidal indicates considerable subsequent compactiondriven subsidence of the lagoon floors: Hopua, 5 m; Onepoto Basin, 9 m; Orakei Basin, 8 m; Pukaki
Lagoon, 11 m. Presumably most compaction occurred in the underlying lake floor mud, which indicates
that additional subsidence would have accompanied accumulation of the subtidal sediment as well.
KEYWORDS: New Zealand; Waitemata Harbour; Manukau Harbour; Ostracoda; Foraminifera;
Mollusca.
NEW COMATULID CRINOIDS FROM THE MEYERS PASS LIMESTONE MEMBER (WAITAKIAN
(CHATTIAN)) OF THE PENTLAND HILLS AND HURSTLEA, SOUTH CANTERBURY, NEW
ZEALAND
M.K. EAGLE
A new family Maorimetridae, two new genera Maorimetra and Zelandimetra, and six new species of
comatulid crinoids in the genera Comaster (Comasteridae), Amphorometra (Conometridae),
Vicetiametra (Conometridae), Maorimetra (Maorimetridae), Zelandimetra (Notocrinidae), and
Palaeantedon (Antedoninae) are described from the Late Oligicene Meyers Pass Limestone Member,
Otekaike Limestone Formation (and lateral equivalent), Otiake Group, at Ardlogie Station, Pentland
Hills, and at Haugh’s Quarry, Hurstlea, South Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand. The new
species lived contemporaneously in shallow, inner- to middle-shelf biostrome facies in association
with stalked crinoids at, or close to, the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. This is the third record of fossil
comatulids from the Cenozoic of New Zealand and their paleobiogeographic significance is discussed.
A morphology key to identifying the nine comatulid species known from both fossil localities is given.
KEYWORDS: Comatulida; Comaster; Amphorometra; Vicetiametra; Maorimetridae n. fam.;
Maorimetra n. gen.; Zelandimetra n. gen.; Palaeantedon; new species; Oligocene; DuntroonianWaitakian; Chattian; Otekaike Limestone Formation.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE GRASSES (GRAMINEAE) OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN REGION
R. GARDNER
Keys are presented to the grasses (11 tribes, 56 genera and 134 species) of Rotuma, Wallis and Futuna
Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, and the Cook Islands. A list of spot-characters, and key to the
common coastal grasses, are also given.
KEYWORDS: Gramineae (Poaceae); central Pacific Ocean islands; identification; keys; descriptions.