ARTCRAFT OF THE MAORI.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1927, Page 8

ARTCRAFT OF THE MAORI.

Under the newly-appointed Maori Arts and Crafts Board a. survey is to be made of that particularly interesting architectural field, the carved house, as developed by the various native tribes. Mr. Hamilton, tho director, who is to begin his work by seeking out and studying the carved meeting-houses in the Rotonia and Bay of Plenty districts, will soon discover that there is a great variety of style in the decoration of the meeting-houses that nearly all Maori villages contain. Generally, the Arawa house is a sightly, welldesigned and symmetrically balanced place in respect of its carved frontal pieces, supporting posts and interior slabs and rafter adornments. It fits in with the landscape, its red colour is subdued and pleasant to look upon. In some of the smaller remote places, such as Otaramarae, in a bay of Lake Rotoiti, quite graceful little halls of antique type are to be seen. The Arawa, the Ngati-Awa and Wliakatohea tribes arc particularly well skilled in the reproduction of ancient "Wliakairo" models, and such good craftsmen as the late Anaha, of Ohincmtitu, took special pride in the perpetuation of the best patterns handed down through generations of woodworking artists. But queer innovations sometimes creep in; they arc to be noticeable in some of the Bay of Plenty and Urcwera houses. I remember that effigy of the tribal ancestor Toroa, which has the place of honour at the foot of tho principal post supporting the ridgepole in the great "whare-whakairo" called "The Whai-a-tc-Motu" at Mataatua, in the heart of the Urewcra Country. Toroa, great navigator and warrior, is beautifully adorned with tattooing, but his neck is enclosed in a carvcu collar and bow-tie, apparently copied from some draper's advertisement in a newspaper! ■ The period was 1890, when the house wad built for Tc Kooti by his Urewcra worshippers, and the collar and tfs quite faithfully reproduce the fashion of th« day. The Maori Arts and Crafts Board is not likely to endorse tho Toroa sculpture as an authentic model, any more than it will approve of the golden crown which some pakehaficd young carver of the coast has set upon the dark tresses of the goddess of the sea, whoso figure, coiled tail and all, beautifies the front of the tribal house, "Wairaka," on the seafront at Whakatane town. These are but slight excrescences, however; the Wairaka house is a really well-modelled building, and the big Mataatua hall, over 80ft in length, is an admirable specimen of massive construction and native art genius combined. It is in the more southern part of the island that one finds artcraft notions rather astonishingly perverted sometimes. There is—or perhaps was, for it is some years since I saw it a meeting-house at the little-visited settlement, Mubunoa, near Sir Walter Bailer's old home at Lake Papaitonga, south of Horowhcnua, on the Wellington line. It was not only quite out of proportion in respect of the "maihi" and "araomaihi," the front side slabs and bargeboards, and the carved heads above, but parts were painted in a ghastly staring blue, a colour the true Maori artist newr uses in houses. It was altogether an excellent specimen of what to avoid in "whakairo" work. Ngati-Porou, abound the East Cape, have some largo and artistic village halls, combining ancient patterns with modern comfort. But no carved house I have seen in all the villages of Maoridom can better for true ancient artistry and primitive consistency of construction the Wliakatohea meeting-house and prayer-bouse called "TaneWhirinaki," which is to my mind the best extant example of a native decorated building. It stands among tho peach trees on a pretty mound above the Waioka River, a settlement called Opekerau, about six miles inland from Opotiki. The house was built by the Chief Hira te Popo, of the Ngati-Ira sub-tribe, forty years ago. It is massively and richly carved in designs embodying tribal mythology and history, and is not dis figured with pakeha door and glasswindow like most Maori halls nowadays. The "pare" or architrave above the doorway, the "ruru" head above the entrance, and the "narata," the end o: the ridgepole in the porch-roof, with the tattooed head of Rangi-Kiirukuru, the Sky-father, ir« particularly good examples of Wliakatohea artcraft. This house is of remarkable interest in another way, for it is "tapu" to Europeans. The NgatiIra are all adherents of the Ringa-tu church— the offshoot of the old Hauhau religion—are strong in the faith that Te Kooti first promulgated, and their prayers and chants rise in "Tane-Whirinaki" every night and momin« Saturday is their Sabbath, and the observance of the day is strict. But may be the disciples of Ringa-tu will lift the tapu, under special dispensation from their bishop, when the Arts and Crafts Board visits Opekerau. —J.C.