Cairns Keith

Cairns, Keith Raymond 1925-1987

From McFadgen (2003:8):

"Keith Cairns was a Masterton resident with an active interest in Maori history. For more than 40 years he collected information about old Maori sites, very little of which was submitted to the New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme. In the early 1960s he wrote to nearly every farmer in the Wairarapa Valley asking for information about old Maori sites on their land ... and received hundreds of replies. Each reply was recorded, and some sites visited and given a map reference.

Carried out a small number of excavations as did his son Tony (see below) in the Wairarapa.

Collections of Papers are held at the Alexander Turnbull Library."

Some papers are also held in the Wairarapa Archive.

In his private life Cairns was a jeweller. He was awarded a Queens Service Medal in 1984 for his services to archaeology. There is much bibliographic material at a genealogy website here.

Reference

Select Publications

Cairns, K.R. 1976. Report for the Historic Places trust on the Investigation of skeletal material examined on the property of Mr. J.B. McKenzie, Maungahina, R.D. Masterton (N159/17).

Cairns, K.R. 1981. Nga Tau e Waru centennial booklet 1881-1981 Te Ore Ore Centennial Committee. Masterton, New Zealand

Cairns, K.R. 1982. Report for the Police Department, Masterton, on the investigation of Human Remains found on a hill north of the Mataikona River. Investigation conducted by Constable M. O'Donnell and K. R. Cairns, December 6, 1982 (N159/19)

Cairns, K.R. 1980. Radiocarbon dates from Okau excavation—Wairarapa. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter 23(4): 269.

Cairns, K.R., and Lockerbie, L. 1980. Radiocarbon dates from Castlepoint. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter 23(4): 268.

Cairns, T.; Walton, T. 1992. Excavation of a midden (U26/24) on the Wairarapa coast. New Zealand Archaeological Association Newsletter 35(4): 220–227.