WAR CANOE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 301, 20 December 1937, Page 5

WAR CANOE.

OVER I2OFT LONG. MADE IN FAR NORTH. HAULED OUT BY BULLOCKS. TWO OLD MAORI CRAFTSMEN. (By F.C.J.) The scene is a little clearing in the great Puketi State forest near Kerikeri, in the North of Auckland. Begrudging even that little space of dappled sunlight and shade, sharply contrasted against the eternal twilight of the surrounding bush, the tall, riotously festooned trees crowd jealously in. And the only sounds are the falling cadence of the tui's call and the over-loud whirr of the native pigeon in flight. Of human beings there is not a sign, though it is obvious that men have made this clearing, just as it is obvious that the reason for the clearing is those two mighty shaped logs of kauri lying yonder, oddly golden in the sun against the sombrenes3 of the shade beyond.

Suddenly, distantly up the rough bush track, noises fall. Men's voices shout, unintelligibly, peremptorily, and there is the slow, even sound of beasts walking in unison. Then, through the trees men run back and forwards, guiding the awkward advance of a "bullock train. Eight into the clearing the animals come. They stumble, they turn, they back, and finally stand, heads lowered, depicting the patience of the ages. Their driver and his helpers fix a steel hawser round the end of one of the great shapen logs. The "bullocky" shouts again. The 14 animals lian forward, grunt, take the strain—and one section of another of the war canoes being built under the control of Te Puea Herangi, of Ngaruawahia, begins its 18-mile journey to the water. J

Another Canoe in the Making. Yes, that is the story. Away in the Puketi bush two old Maori canoe architects, the last of those who possess the art in Ao-tea-roa, have been working since October, making the greatest canoe New Zealand ever saw, or probably ever will see. Some two years ago Te Puea conceived the idea of building a fleet of seven war canoes, to be comparable with Toki a Tapiri, which rests in the Museum, the fleet to be the Maori gesture towards the pakeha Centenary celebrations of 1940. Already at Ngaruawahia she has. one almost completed — old Te Winika. She has the three sections of another cut last year in the totara bush near Taupomoana, soaking in the river which runs past the pa. This is the third, two sections of which were hauled out of the northern bush by this bullock team last week. They are to be sunk for some time in a little stream near Waitangi, after which they will be taken to Waitangi proper, and finished. The third section is still to be made. The tree, in fact, has not yet been felled. But when the canoe is finished, it will be over 120 feet in length, with a beam of more than six feet. Two Sections 31 Feet Long. Each of the two sections at present shaped are 31 feet long, with an aver- ■ age beam of just under five feet. The . centre section, however, will measure 60 feet by six feet. The tree as it stands is 67 feet to the first limb, has a girth of 23 feet at the base, and is i 19 feet at the centre. These trees , are the gift of the State Forest Service s to the northern tribes, the canoe con- • struction being under the guidance of iTe Puea. The same two old men who > made the canoe at Taupo are making . this, and they will make all the others. 5 They are Ranui Maupakanga and r Ropata. Wirihana, both from Hauturu, near Kawhia.

No intricate instruments went to the making of these canoes, which must be so perfect as to float absolutely upright. Intricate! No. Simply a length of fishing twine, a piece of black pencil and a saw, axes and adzes. The tree felled, they took the width they wanted at each end of the trunk, ran the fishina line down each side to correspond with ,the width, and marked the shape of the

hull on the butt end of the trunk. After that they simply went to work with the adzes. Balance? They shrugged and smiled. A matter of eye, they replied. These, then, are the sections hauled by the team. What a day it was! Everyone got excited except the bullocks, and, seeing the country, and the track in particular, one wondered how the animals ever shifted the vast masses, let alone hauled them.

But it happened. Commands in an extraordinary compound of cursing in English and pleading in Maori ripped through the air. Skids were thrown under the hull by sweating, eager helpers clad in all the miscellany of the waybacks. The leaders bowed their heads, locked their horns, stood like granite statues while their muscles rippled and suddenly bunched. Small trees crashed; supplejack vines burst asunder. The animals' legs moved like relentless pistons-—and the thing was done. Over a mile of rough uphill track had to be traversed in a series of spurts and rests before the main Okaihau-Kaeo road appeared; and the going took just over an hour. Once better going was reached a lorry was waiting for the bullock team, and the two sections were taken the rest of the way to the water by the lorry and its trailer. Help That Was Given. No story of this Northern canoe would be complete without mention of the help given by Mr. James Ogle, forest officer of the reserve, who helped whenever help was needed, and yet exercised an unobtrusive and efficient authority. He, indeed. gave to the two old men a message from Te Puea, and in the sunlit quiet of the little bush clearing, with the bullocks standing round, the tuis calling overhead and a group of Maoris standing barehead as a mark of respect, the scene was curiously impressive. Te Puea told Ranui and Ropata, the last of their kind, that history would remember -them; that the canoes would speak for them, that veneration was their due.

And so, little by little, the dream of Te Puea is coming true. Two years ago it seemed hardly possible to anyone but her; but she worked and planned, and success had bred success. The Government became interested, and to no one is Te Puea more grateful than to the Government. But five more canoe* are to i>e made, and time draws on. Much [still remains to he done.