TE KAPA MAORI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 14, 17 January 1931, Page 8

TE KAPA MAORI.

In case "Rangatira's" letter rc "Kapai te Kai" should lead one to believe that my report on the "Kapa Maori" held at Marastai was not accurate, I should like to point out that "Rangatira" makes the mistake of confusing a report with a treatise. "Te kapa Maori" would- be, judged by his standards, more of an accurate description than' the unassailably-, correct "hangi," because I am certain that, while it, was an interesting demonstration of "good-enough-for-the-pakeha" Maori cooking, it was far from being correctly carried out with all the ceremony and frills so dearly loved by the ancient .Maoris. A. "hangi" was never started with kerosene, the holes dug with long-handled shovels; the stones brought by launch and wheelbarrow, or the food covered with wet linen tablecloths and wet sacks, as was done on this occasion; in addition to which, the preparation of.the oven,was done by pakehas, the Maoris doing only the cooking. It was a chronicle of a small entertainment in connection with a community hall on that particular day and not an attempt to describe a Maori "ha,ngi," which is probably as different from the Maraetai demonstration as a pakeha-Maori haka is when compared with the hakae Cajftain Cook was thrilled with (provided, to qualify my simile, Captain Cook did witness one). It does not always do, of course, to report proceedings of these well-meant entertainments in all their amateurish glory, and I am sure the small paragraph published, would not; cause a,ny pakeha or Maori to languish through ill-nourishment by attempting to build a Maori oven from the abridged description. Of this I am certain: The audience was intensely interested and the demolishing afterwards of the viands on china and enamel plates with knives-and forks may have grated on "Rangatira's" iicrves, but it did not spoil a pleasant afternoon's enjoyment. Regarding the correct procedure of the cooking, if the Maoris themselves were not performing the ceremony in the proper manner, who is to be the judge of how to and how not to do it? Surelv not a, pakeha. F. J. DAWSON, Jun.