VALUED PAINTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 136, 12 June 1933, Page 8

VALUED PAINTING.

REWI MANIAPOTO'S PORTRAIT CHIEFS CLAIM POSSESSION. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) TE KUITI, this day. At the conclusion of the Margaret Grace will case in the Native Land Court an unusual incident occurred. Two native chiefs, Maniapoto Tupotahi and Rauriti te Huia, who had come' from Kihikihi, and were seated in the body of the court, made claim through the Court for possession of a famous oil painting which hung in the residence of Mrs. Grace at Kihikihi, The picture was a life-size painting of the famous Orakau war chieftain, Rewi Maniapoto. It was executed by order of the Government after the war, an artist being sent to Rewi's pa for the purpose. Apart from a smaller painting in the Auckland Art Gallery, this is the only authentic life painting of the warrior, ! who, as leader of a handful of halfstarved Orakau. defenders, when overwhelmed by a majority of British soldiers defiantly declared he would "fight on for ever and ever and ever." When informed by the Court that it had no jurisdiction in the matter mentioned by them, Rauriti submitted with all the dignity the Court demanded that the chiefs would apply to the Government for an Ordcr-in-Council in connection with the matter.