This article was included in my latest Archaeology reports which are sent to me weekly as a subscriber to Archaeological news and highlights the negative media attention to metal detecting through the thoughtless and indiscriminate actions of fools whose actions and behaviours will eventually bring about legislation to curb the hobby so that those responsible detectorists who always ask, always ensure that they are welcome to detect an area and who reinstate the ground so that no sign of their passing is evident will eventually be unable to find anywhere to detect other than on private land.
In my opinion this guy deserved all he got even though my question is ‘would we have detected there IF we thought we could get away with it?’ - the answer is probably YES!
It is also interesting to note that some three years ago in Auckland I saw a remarkable selection of cannon balls (total jealousy) and when I enquired where they came from I was told the source and one small pile of cannon ball pieces had come from the very site of this article - Ruapekapeka. Apparently in that case it was an American tourist who decided to go metal detecting, went to Ruapekapeka, found the cannon ball pieces and then on sold them.
This bad exposure though is going to impact on us all eventually and indicates that as metal detectorists we should always be responsible, Sadly this galoot is going to cost us all when eventually legislation will be introduced to prevent us indulging in a fun and worthwhile hobby. It doesnt alter the fact though that I am jealous of what he found!
