HISTORIC LANDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 261, 4 November 1927, Page 10

HISTORIC LANDING.

THE ARAWA CANOE. REOPENING OF RIVER. CEREMONY AT MAKETU, The official opening of the new outlet of the Kaituna River was - held yesterday. Maketu was gay with flags on which typical Maori greetings were displayed. In the morning leading Maori chiefs of the Arawa tribe addressed the people by the meeting house. At 11.30 a.m. the district engineer, Mr. Dyson, members of the River Board and County Council came down the new cut in launches.made out to sea over the bar and returned to the cut. As the sea was smooth there was little break on the bar, and the ceremony passed off without mishap. Visitors from Rotorua and all parts of the Bay of Plenty were present. At 1 p.m. the meeting house grounds were crowded with visitors. The banquet provided by the Arawa Trust Board and prepared in huge hangis by-the Maketu natives and entertainment committee was served in the hall, which U capable of seating 100 guests. There were three sittings at the hall for the pakeha visitors. The Maoris found accommodation on the grass outsid e where long cloths were arranged on the ground and pipis, cockles and mussels set out handy to the diners. After a series of poi dances by the Waitangi girls, who won the competition for poi dancing at Rotorua during-the visit of the Duke of York, the hang" were opened with proper song and ceremony. The food was passed round by the neat waitresses and the guesta were soon busy testing the skill of the native cooks. Mr. H. Tai Mitchell, chairman of the Arawa Trust Board, proposed the healtn of the Kaituna River Board and the Public Works Department, who had carried out the work and provided the Mr. Broad and Mr. Dyson replied. The health of the committee and workers was then drunk amid cheers for the ladies. This work has been assisted by grants from the Arawa Trust Board and has aroused great enthusiasm among the Arawas who feel that the reopening of the river at the site of the historic landing of the canoe which brought their ancestors to New Zealand, will be *he means of bringing together the scattered parts of the tribe to its old home at Maketu. As part of the opening ceremony a salute was fired at the riv** mouth by the old cannons brought hen* by the original Hans Tapsell who was among the first white settlers in the Bay of Plenty *■*_, **"■*'