OLD-TIME MAORIS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 304, 20 December 1912, Page 2

OLD-TIME MAORIS.

A TJ-NXQTJ- POBTEAIT GALLERY THE PARTRIDGE COLI^CTION. LOANED TO THE CITY. Oddly enough, the Partridge Collection of Maori portraits, by the famous artist 3 1 Lindauer, is probably better known 3 among visitors than among Aucklanders j themselves. The visitors' book contains the names and appreciative remarks of j travellers from all over the world, anl two of the pictures have been across the sea to America, where at the St s Louis Exposition they were the feature of the New Zealand court. Mr. H. E. ! Partridge has received requests from 1 enthusiasts in New York, London and Paris to take his unique collection to the Old World, where its ethnological value is known to scientific men. The owner has always been pleased to allow I the public to visit his collection free, but as the premises are now needed for another purpose, there was some doubt ; about the future of the pictures. Hearing that the exhibition was to close at the end of the present year, the Mayor, Mr. C. J. Parr, wrote to Mr. Partridge, and suggested that the City Council would be willing to house the pictures if he were disposed to loan the collection to the city. Yesterday { the Mayor and Mr. T. W. Leys, a mem- » ber of the Art Gallery Committee, m.-t \ Mr. Partridge at the Gallery, and. dis--2 cussed the proposal. The Art Ua.lcTy 3 is at present undergoing renovation, and 7 the area is being increased to quite j double the previous size. The rooms occupied by the City Engineer when the municipal offices were situated in the tmilding have been reorganised, and it was intended to use them as an old colonists' quarter, where pictures, documents, etc., relating to the early days could be kept. In the meantime it was suggested that the Partridge collection might well find a resting-place there, and after the proposal had been explained, Mr. Partridge said he would be very pleased to place his pictures there until at least after the forth-oming Auckland Exhibition. Mr. .Partridge further geaer- - ously offered to transfer the canvases ! at his own expense, and promised to 1 keep up the insurance, so that the cost ' to the city will be nil. Speaking to a - "Star" reporter, Mr. Parr said he thought Mr. Partridge had treated tat city very handsomely. The people of Auckland were to be congratu'at d up_ 1 securing the loan of the collection, which ; was unique. During th 3 Exhibition seaj son there was no doubt the collection would be a great attraction, espeeia ly to visitors to Auckland. The City En gineer had received instructions to at once go on with the arrangements for the housing of the pictures The collection is, with one exception, entirely from the brush of Gottfried Lindauer, an Austrian artist, who about i lorty years ago came to New Z.-afend . and has ever since being transferrin- to " canvas the features of t_ fJE_L_ ' ™/ of the people whe . P*rtbr,squenc6 3 and tue-r noble and \ un - Wd result IttUSft S a a n t _„, h^ tinl . e °' lhe <-''"•", who i» an enthusiastic admirer of the original inhabitants of MaoriUnd and _*" a gj ea t interest in their customs S-SnSSf __- \ eCial Ca — -<* * «_ pigment, have been used, and everv- £_ L hm ?{J nljr P ° Ssibie ha * been doVe ParrrM 6 P~mUn ga permanent. Mr s r^firo a fV rt h unate b *< SS~ SSJK ~ , wa J s and customs fitted v>;£ culiarly for the wort The thW never be done ajgain Th„ f g , g°™. The ran-r a °tira' ha £ c }P&i have legendary. C_____\ with A 6o "",' * hnOGt robbed the Maori of 1 pakeha ha 3 characteristics which „„" „"? the ropcans to acknowledge him hi Ku " to the "finest brown, ™ S be on ?* n g world." n rac « m the *?%__? rJt"* 1 -"» **• in Partridge the cratic "Old down to the half _=te of to ' dauer's canvasses teil of IL V ' m " SUeTS tho^ _K___ mmm any race. Most of the lection appear to favour the _!__?. , sjje of the female nature. One wth n^ roo S ks k ; n t OWn 4 a %>," ' S»e ' unVA was the woman who ! ? h U iL ed UP th 6 sur veyor's pegs as fast as I ! they were hammered in, and so ca.use<r the war ,n Taranaki. She also looks it I ■ Some of the more important portraits! ■ historically are those of Tawhiao (the I I second Maori king), Tamati Waka "Vene | Patuone (who was over a hundred when'l ; he died, and was one of the N-apuhi I natives who saw Cook's Endeavour in I 1769), Wahanui, Rewi (the principal l - fighting chief of the Ngatimaniopoto' tribe during the Waikato war), Tamati Ngapora. Taraia (a fierce old cannibal ! chief). Hori Ngakapa, Tukukino, Major Ropata, Ihaka Whanga, Te Hira Te Ka-! wau, Paratene Te Manu, andTuhoto (the! last of the old order of heathen Maori' priests and reputed wizards). To the average visitor, however, the chief interest in tlie collection centres round the large canvasses depicting old customs, crafts, and games. There are two grim subjects, the feeding of the tohungn under tapu, and a young warrior | goin.z through the painful process of moko I (tattooing). In the first, a fiendishj looking old priest, upon whom rests the embargo of tapu, during the operation of] I which he could not touch food with his I hands, is being attended by a nude child, I kneeling down and feeding the holy man with cooked potatoes from a green flax basket. The drawing of the child figure is particularly fine, and the contrast between it and the old savage is highly dramatic. The picture of the tattooing of the young brave contains on the left an old Waikato chief, one of the few of the originals of the pictures who still linger on this side of Te Heinga. More pleasing are a group of women plaiting flax baskets, and another group, in which the central figure is busy on a "korowhai", those beautifully woven white flax mate, ornamented with dozens of black tassels. Another interesting subject is the use of the firestick —the universal method among savage people of emulating Prometheus. A picture which appeals to i everyone is that of a group of happy i children engaged in that fascinating pastime of jackstones, which, oddly enough,' is found among youngsters wherever trav-' ellers have penetrated. As some of the I canvasses are too large to go through I any door or window in the building, it]

will be necessary to dismantle then This will take time, and it probably wi be the end of February or the begmnin r of March before they are hung in the Ai Gallery.