Replying to Peter Dey (Weekend Sun 29 June). Carbon dating is still not solid evidence that Maori were the first settlers in NZ as there have been many mistakes made with this method in the past. Is Peter Dey now saying that the accounts by Maori elders to Europeans, from various parts of NZ and from the late 1700s onwards, of a race of people inhabiting NZ when Maori arrived, fairy tales or lies? These accounts cannot be discounted as there are far too many of them in the National Archives.
The Julius von Haast find in 1871 was not just found buried under 6 metres of soil. The adze was found under 6 metres of soil directly under the roots of a giant tree estimated to be 1000 to 1500 years old, after the tree had been felled.
Did an earthquake or heavy rainfall move the tree over the adze or the adze under the tree? The carbon dating of the adze as Peter Dey states 'may have been less than 400 years old”. May have been! That is not very positive. In that case it may also have been over 1000 years old.

Roger Bailey, Papamoa.