gems, jade, New Zealand, nephrite, pounamu, Fischer-Other

Ferdinand von Hochstetter visited New Zealand in 1858–1859 and undertook an extensive survey in the central North Island and northernmost part of the South Island. He also took great interest in the Māori people and culture, including their descriptive vocabulary relating to geological phenomena and materials. He developed a special fascination with pounamu (nephrite jade) and the way it was used for the manufacture of ornaments, tools and weapons. After his return to Vienna a small selection of specimens formed the basis for early mineralogical analyses. In 1876 he was appointed the founding director of the Viennese Natural History Museum. One of the identified gaps in the collection was a mere pounamu and through Julius von Haast, Director of Canterbury Museum, and the Reverend James West Stack, he was able to purchase one of a pair of mere traditionally manufactured by hand using stone tools by Tamati Tikao of Ngāi Tahu who lived at Wainui, on Akaroa Harbour. The other mere was purchased by the natural history museum in Dresden under the direction of Adolf Bernhard Meyer. This paper presents for the first time an annotated English translation of Hochstetter’s original descriptive paper on the mere, published in 1884 and explores the provenance of the two mere held in the museum collections in Vienna and Dresden. Much of the information used by Hochstetter in his paper was provided by Reverend Stack, communicated through Julius von Haast.