BRUMMAGEM MAORI CARVINGS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 116, 16 May 1906, Page 7

BRUMMAGEM MAORI CARVINGS

PROPOSED MAORI SCHOOL OF ART. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. In a shed of the museum yard a veteran Maori (Neke) and his two sous, with modern tools, are fashioning images on the old time plan from squared logs. They have been brought from Rotorua to carve posts for tho outside of the pah that is to he built in the New Zealand Exhibition grounds at Ohristchurch. A very large piece of timber ie daily expected from the totara forest in the centre of the North. Island for the great gateway, or waharou. This will require a slab 20ft long, 4ft 6in wide, and about 6in thick, a big piece to handle. A "Post" reporter, after glancing at the skilful workers, remarked to Mr. A. Hamilton, director of the museum, that he bad heard of considerable quantities of "Brummagem" Maori curios being palmed on to the unwary. "There is no doubt," replied Mr. Hamilton, "that a great deal of very poor carving is done nowadays for sale to tourists. By poor, I mean, it is of a character that no Maoris of the olden time would consider correct. For instance, we see some beautifuly carved paddles with elaborate patterns and ornamentation, but often they are as much as an inch and a-balf in thickness in. some parts of the blade where the carving is in the highest relief. It would be impossible to find anything of this kind in the carved paddles of ancient date. With, regard to weapons, the majority are carved in softer wood than the axe of old, and are in other respects clumsy and badly proportioned. Many people interested in the preservation of the old time arts of the Maori," Mr. Hamilton added, "had advocated the establishment of a school for the carving of curios at Rotorua or some other centre. There was little doubt that much good might be done if such an establishment were properly supervised. There was no reason to doubt that the carving abilities of many Maoris of the present generation were quite equal to those of their forefathers, and they had in addition the tools of the pakeha, which enabled them to do the work with much greater expedition. There were still many of the older men who would be able to give valuable help in denning the various styles that were recognised by tradition. The use of aniline dyes, which had now become so prevalent, could be discouraged, and the old native dyes could be again brought forward. Tourists were constantly seen departing from New Zealand's shores with what they fondly imagined to be Maori curios, and these were gometimes exhibited in English, and Continental collections as specimens of "Maori art." These things might be made by Maoris, but they were not Maori art of the old school. It was quite certain that with increased'tourist traffic and the improved facilities which New Zealanders had for visiting their ancestral homes, there would be a greater demand for souvenirs and relics of the Maoris. In any revival of the Mapri arts care should be taken that the question of using the best kinds of flax should not be lost from sight. In former days great precaution was exercised in discriminating between the various fibres and appropriating them ito special uses; nowadays there was much danger of some of these kinds of flax being lost through the process of clearing the land.